The Ministry of Power has canceled the central pricing pool mechanism initially in effect for 3 years
The decision follows renewable developers and agencies flagging tariff uncertainty as a barrier to power sale agreements
Already issued Letters of Award remain valid and can proceed with standalone PPAs
The Ministry of Power (MoP) in India has done away with the concept of a central pricing pool for renewable energy projects for a period of 3 years. The move is aimed at expediting the deployment of renewable energy in the country.
India introduced the concept of a Solar Power Central Pool and a Solar-Wind Hybrid Central Pool in December 2022 under a Uniform Renewable Energy Tariff (URET). The idea was to pool together this renewable energy generation for supply to end-procurers of more than one state, at uniform tariffs centrally.
It was done to standardize purchase prices since tariffs determined for these technologies in the competitive solicitation processes were quite low back then.
The power pool came into effect from February 15, 2024, for a period of 3 years, till February 14, 2027.
However, in a memorandum dated August 1, 2025, the MoP says that the Renewable Energy Implementing Agencies (REIA)and renewable energy developers have expressed concerns over procurers’ reluctance to sign power sale agreements (PSA) under URET on account of ‘uncertainty of tariffs’ over a 3-year period.
Hence, the ministry has decided to withdraw the central pricing pool directive for solar power and solar-wind hybrid projects and dissolve the same, taking into consideration ‘substantial renewable energy capacity awaiting PSA signing and to expedite the deployment of RE’.
It adds that the bids received and Letters of Award (LoA) issued thereunder will remain valid on a standalone basis. These may be considered for the signing of power purchase agreements (PPA) by the REIAs.
According to a recent Reuters report, India’s Sustainable Projects Developers Association (SPDA) counts over 50 GW of competitively selected renewable energy capacity awaiting PSAs, having more than doubled over 9 months due to unfinished transmission lines and legal and regulatory delays.
The REIAs, namely Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), NTPC Limited, NHPC Limited, and SJVN Limited, have signed a cumulative 22.7 GW of PSAs since April 2023, but have also had to cancel 11.4 GW of renewable energy procurement tenders as of June 30, 2025 owing to unreasonably high tariffs and producers backing out, among other reasons (see India Solar PV News Snippets: RE Procurement Tender Cancellations Over 11 GW Since 2023 & More).