Acme Solar Signs PPA With SECI for 300 MW Peak Power at ₹6.00 a Unit

Acme Solar Holdings has signed a power purchase agreement with the Solar Energy Corporation of India for a 300 MW peak power project, at a tariff of ₹6.00 per unit. The company disclosed the signing on Friday, according to Sahi.

The deal puts a fixed price on every unit the project sells to SECI, the state-run agency that runs most of India's renewable tenders. Peak power projects are built to deliver electricity in the evening hours, when demand climbs and solar farms without storage have largely stopped generating.

Why peak power matters

India's grid leans on gas and coal plants to meet the evening spike. Solar output falls away as the sun goes down, so a project that can supply power at that hour is worth more to the grid than one that only generates at midday. That's the reason peak contracts carry a higher tariff than plain solar.

₹6.00 a unit sits well above the ₹2.50, 3.00 range that plain solar auctions have settled at in recent years. The gap reflects the cost of firming the supply, whether through storage or a mix of generation sources.

Acme Solar Holdings is one of the country's larger renewable developers, with a portfolio spread across solar and wind. The company has been building out its pipeline of projects tied to SECI tenders.

The SECI route

SECI acts as the intermediary between developers and the distribution companies that finally buy the power. It runs the auctions, signs the PPAs, and then sells the electricity onward. For developers, a signed PPA with SECI is the step that turns a winning bid into a bankable project.

The 300 MW project will need to be built and connected to the grid before it starts supplying power under the agreement. The announcement did not give a commissioning date or the location of the project.

Peak power tenders have drawn interest from developers looking to sell into the evening window. The tariff of ₹6.00 a unit gives Acme a fixed return on the project over the life of the contract.

The signing comes as India works toward its renewable energy targets for the end of the decade. Peak power capacity is a small slice of the total so far, and each contract signed adds to that base.

Acme Solar Holdings has not said how it will firm up the 300 MW supply, or when the first units will flow to SECI.