Dholera issue: O2 Power, Tata, and Vena move the Electricity Appellate Tribunal for relief

MUMBAI: Three of the country's top renewable power developers: O2 Power, , and Vena Energy have moved to the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) seeking relief in the Dholera issue.

Renew Power, the fourth developer in the bid, chose not to proceed, people in the know said.

The hearing on the matter took place on Monday, with both parties arguing about the unilateral cancellation of a 700 MW project in Dholera, Gujarat by the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL), after the aggrieved developers filed an urgent listing with APTEL.

APTEL said that they had reserved judgement on the matter. An interim judgement is expected in the next couple of weeks, people aware of the developments told ET.

Due to the reserved judgement, no re-auctioning of the same project can take place till the matter reaches resolution.

At the beginning of the month, GUVNL cited high tariffs as a reason for the auction's cancellation. While this project had the lowest price point of Rs. 2.78 per unit, a new tariff for a separate auction by GUVNL had been discovered at Rs. 1.99, the lowest bid for a solar project in the country yet.

The Letter of Awards (LoA) were already issued last year, with a power purchase agreement scheduled to be signed in January this year.

Developers are worried that such a trend sets a bad precedent for the industry, and might lead to investor backlash.

This is the third time the state-owned GUVNL has cancelled auctions after they were bid out — once each in 2018 and 2019, for a 500 MW and 700 MW project respectively.