The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has awarded electricity trading license to Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (MAHAGENCO). With this grant of license, MAHAGENCO can now participate in the state’s power trading activities.

The license granted to MAHAGENCO is a category A license for power trading, and with this the body can trade up to 100 million kWh of electricity.

When contacted, a MAHAGENCO official said, “We applied for this license as MAHAGENCO is the implementing agency for the Mukhyamantri Saur Krushi Vahini Yojana (Chief Minister’s Solar Agriculture Feeder Program), and at the same time we are also a power generator.”

This trading license will help MAHAGENCO sign power purchase agreements (PPAs) with project developers for 1.5 GW of solar PV out of the 3 GW that is envisaged under the Mukhyamantri Saur Krushi Vahini Yojana and then enter into power sale agreements (PSAs) with the state distribution companies (DISCOMs).

This will also result in some additional revenue for MAHAGENCO. When asked about this, the MAHAGENCO official said, “Yes, but it will not be much, as we will only take some administrative charges. This license is more for paving way for solar in agriculture than making money for MAHAGENCO.”

With the aim of promoting solar, recently MAHAGENCO also invited an expression of interest (EoI) to set up solar component (modules and cells) manufacturing unit in the state.

In June 2018, MAHAGENCO had tendered 750 MW of grid-connected solar projects to cater to the agricultural (AG) feeder load of various substations across the state.

Mercom previously reported on  MAHAGENCO’s plans to solarize Maharashtra’s agricultural feeders by constructing 1,500 MW of solar project capacity. Capacity of each individual project is expected to range from 2 MW to 50 MW.

Saumy is a senior staff reporter with MercomIndia.com covering business and energy news since 2016. Prior to Mercom, Saumy was a copy editor at Thomson Reuters. Saumy earned his Bachelors Degree in Journalism & Mass Communication from the Manipal Institute of Communication at Manipal University. More articles from Saumy Prateek.