By TIOL News Service

BHOPAL, APR 17, 2017: UNION Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Mr Piyush Goyal, presided over the signing of Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) between Delhi Metro Railways Corporation (DMRC) & Madhya Pradesh Power Management Company (MPPMC) with Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited, the implementing agency for the ‘world's largest single­site solar power project', the Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Power Project (UMSPP, 750MW) in Bhopal today. Other dignitaries present on the occasion were Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information & Broadcasting, Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu and Mr Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

Addressing the gathering, Mr Naidu said that Madhya Pradesh is a special state having huge resource base that is being harnessed under Mr Chouhan's leadership. Taking a huge step towards realizing Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi's vision of 24x7 Affordable, Quality Power for All, Madhya Pradesh has successfully brought down the rate of solar power to Rs. 3.30/ unit, which is a huge revolution in its own right, Mr Naidu noted. The Minister said that seven cities in the State qualified as smart cities in the first round comprising a total of 20 cities. This has been made possible only through people's active participation and the dynamic leadership in the State, Mr Naidu said.

In his address, Mr Chouhan said that the Madhya Pradesh government has set three guiding principles of its performance - equitable growth, social empowerment and sustainable development. The Chief Minister noted that a decade ago even water, electricity and roads used to be challenges in the State but now due to the dynamic development model being implemented, the year on year agricultural growth will touch 25% this year and milestones like the cheapest solar power in the country are being achieved in Rewa. Madhya Pradesh has become the leading state in renewable energy sector in India, the Chief Minister said.

Congratulating Mr Chouhan on his unrelenting efforts in the direction of achieving the unprecedented scaling up of the renewable energy sector in the State, Mr Piyush Goyal informed that the Rewa UMSPP had achieved historic results with a record low first year tariff of Rs 2.97 per unit of electricity and a levelised tariff of Rs 3.30 over the term of 25 years, in the marathon online auction, which lasted 33 hours between biggest of the Global solar companies. The Rewa UMSPP becomes the first power project to conduct interstate sale of solar power to Delhi Metro. There would be huge savings to the Delhi Metro because of per unit cost of power reducing from over Rs. 4.50 to Rs. 3.30, Mr Goyal informed.