Omkareshwar Floating Solar Project, the India's largest and one of the world's biggest projects 600 MW, under which Letter of Award distributed to the Developers selected for the project of 278 MW capacity in the first phase by Principal Secretary of New and Renewable Energy the Department and Chairperson of Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited, Sanjay Dubey and CEO of Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited. and the Managing Director of MP Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd., Karmveer Sharma during the program organized at Urja Bhawan, Bhopal.
The 600 MW Omkareshwar Floating Solar project at reservoir of Narmada river is being constructed in two phases. Omkareshwar Floating Solar Project will be Madhya Pradesh's first, Country's largest and one of the World's largest floating solar projects. Till now, solar projects were developed on land, but innovative steps have been taken by the State Government and RUMSL to give concrete shape to the concept of developing solar projects on water too, to save precious land.
The Request for Proposal (RFP) for the first phase of 300 MW capacity was floated on November 02, 2021. A total of 15, International, national and PSUs companies participated in the bid process conducted, which shows confidence in state policies to attract investment in RE sector. The technical opening of the tender was done on April 27, 2022 and the financial opening on May 4, 2022. The project developers were selected on May 06, 2022 through e- reverse auction process in the competitive tendering process.
The floating solar project is being implemented under the 'Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Power Parks Scheme (UMREPP)' of MNRE. The entire 600 MW of power generated from Omkareshwar Floating Solar Project will be procured by the State Discoms (through MPPMCL). Hence, this project will also help the State to comply with the RPO target.
The tender for Phase-I achieved minimum rates of ?3.22, ?3.21 and ?3.26 per unit respectively for units D, E and F. M/s NHDC Limited - Unit D, AMP Energy – Unit E and SJVN Limited – Unit F were issued letters of awards on June 30, 2022 for developing a total capacity of 278 MW.
The first phase of 278 MW capacity is proposed to be completed by September 2023. This Omkareshwar project would be one of the multi-purpose projects in the country where in addition to the existing utility such as irrigation and hydro power generation, solar energy will also be generated along with promotion of the tourism.
During the project construction period, approx. 1000 persons and during the project operation period approx. 300 persons will get a opportunity to get benefit of direct and indirect employment. The development of Omkareshwar Floating Solar Project (Phase I) will attract investment of about Rs 1600 crore in the state.
In addition, the project will bring a number of benefits to the people of the state such as reduction of about 6 lakh metric tons of carbon emission in meeting energy demand, saving of about 600 hectares of precious land that may find utility in agriculture/other industry for boosting the state economy. No requirement of land has effectively eliminated the requirement of displacing the people from their natural habitat, which is quite pleasant from the social point of view. In ground mounted solar project, underground water is used to clean the solar panel.
However, in the floating solar project, water from the reservoir will be used for cleaning purpose which would flow back in the reservoir leading to virtually no loss of water along with saving of valuable ground water.