Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) said it has received requests for another five-month extension for renewable projects commissioning on top of its previous five-month extension between March 25, 2020, and August 24, 2020, amid the COVID-19 induced lockdown.
It had previously issued directions to treat the lockdown as a force majeure event and instructed all renewable project implementing agencies to give renewable projects under development a five-month commissioning date extension.
The Ministry gave this extension without any case-to-case examinations and without the need for submitting any documentary evidence.
They had issued a blanket commissioning time extension for all renewable energy projects under construction in the country, amounting to the total period of the lockdown plus 30 days.
Later it also clarified that the lockdown period would be considered from March 25, 2020, to May 31, 2020.
The stakeholders, however, believed that the 30 days’ extension was insufficient. Responding to stakeholder requests, all under-development renewable projects as of the date of the lockdown were given an extension of five months.
The extension applied from March 25, 2020, to August 24, 2020.
However, in its latest notification, the MNRE said that even though a blanket extension was provided previously, any further extensions may only be granted by implementing agencies in exceptional cases.
They are allowed to grant an extension only after conducting due diligence and carefully considering the specific circumstances relevant to each case.
Reference- MNRE website, Mercom India, The Hindu, Economic Times