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PPA-signing delays
What it is
Renewable capacity auctioned and awarded but not contracted, because discoms have not signed power purchase or power sale agreements. The backlog reached around 93 GW, prompting the Ministry of Power to instruct implementing agencies to cancel unsigned bids and letters of award
Discoms hesitate because they already hold surplus contracted capacity or want lower tariffs
Impact on industries
- Awarded capacity without a PPA cannot reach financial close, so the auction pipeline overstates real project activity by a wide margin
- Developers carry bid bonds, land and development costs on projects that may never proceed, and the cancellation directive crystallises those losses
- Reveals the real bottleneck as discom financial health and demand certainty rather than generation capacity or cost
- Clearing stale awards restores credibility to auction volumes, and FDRE structures address the cause since discoms resist intermittent power more than firm supply