Togo Hires India’s NTPC For Solar Power Projects

• Togo government has contracted NTPC of India to help it in the development of about 300 MW solar power capacity
• Project capacity of more than 33 MW will be established on 70-hectare land in Dapaong, Dalwak region and around 250 MW will come up on 500-hectare in Mango, Savanes region
• As the PMC, NTPC will help Togo select developers through competitive bidding, design PPAs among other tasks and may also develop solar projects with its own equity

India's largest public sector utility National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has been engaged by the Government of Tongo as the project management consultant (PMC) for the development of about 300 MW solar power capacity in the African country.

Project capacity of over 33 MW will be set up on 70-hectare of identified land in Dapaong, Dalwak region and some 250 MW will be located on 500-hectare space in Mango, Savanes region.

Togo has become the first International Solar Alliance (ISA) member nation to avail the services of the NTPC. 

Background

In 2019, NTPC had expressed its intention to explore business opportunities in ISA member nations for solar power project development (see ISA Seeks Bids For Solar Project Development). It proposed to act as a PMC for ISA members where solar power projects are implemented through competitive bidding, helping them select solar project developers on a competitive basis, devising regulatory frameworks for competitive procurement of the capacity, structuring of power purchase agreement (PPA), among other tasks. Its consultancy charges will be recovered from the selected developers.

NTPC said it may also develop solar projects with own equity in countries with feed-in-tariff (FIT) policy.

The ISA advisory and finance committees cleared the NTPC proposal handing it a letter of endorsement, basis which Togo has contracted the utility.     

A part of the World Bank's Scaling Solar initiative, Togo is seeking bids for up to 80 MW solar power capacity that was tendered late last year (see Up to 80 MW Solar Tender In Africa's Togo). This year, in January 2020, Togo signed a joint development agreement with Globeleq to develop up to 30 MW of renewable energy capacity in Kara and Dapaong (see Globeleq To Build Up To 30 MW RE Capacity In Togo).

NTPC is one of the two central Indian government agencies, apart from Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) that have been hired by the Indian government for solar power project development in the country. It has developed more than 4 GW of solar projects based on  an independent power producer (IPP) model.

While NTPC explores foreign shores for its solar power expertise, back home three companies terminated their power purchase contracts with the utility under the country's first interstate transmission system (ISTS) connected solar auction, reported Mint newspaper. The contract termination follows regulatory delays on the part of NTPC because of which ACME Solar, Azure Power and Shapoorji Pallonji Infra Capital were reported to have pulled back their offers representing a total capacity of 1.4 GW.