750 MW Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Power Project (Rewa UMSPP) is one of the  largest single-site solar power plants in the world, which spread over an area of 1590 hectares in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh. Compared to the prevailing solar project tariffs of ₹ 4.50/unit being developed by the CPSUs with support of Viability Gap Funding (VGF), the tariff of Rewa project was historic low, which was achieved without any VGF support: the first-year tariff of ₹ 2.97/unit and a levelized rate of ₹ 3.30/unit over the term of twenty-five years. Further, the transparent bidding process adopted in Rewa Solar Project encouraged national and international participation. A total of 20 companies, including six international companies like Engie (France), Enel (Italy), Sembcorp (Singapore), Soft bank (Japan), Arinsun (Mauritius)participated in the bidding process.

In online bidding, 3 Solar Project Developers (SPD), namely, Mahindra Renewables Private Ltd., Acme Jaipur Solar Power Private Ltd. and Arinsun Clean Energy Private Ltd were selected for developing 250 MW Unit each. The project boasts of a unique structuring and is having two power procurers, namely, Madhya Pradesh Power Management Company Ltd. (MPPMCL) and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). MPPMCL, which supplies power to the state Discoms, will get 76% of the power produced from Rewa Solar Power plant, while the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will benefit from the remaining 24%.. Rewa solar plant has started production from June 2018 and has been in commercial production from July 2018. Total 750 MW capacity has been commissioned on 3^rd January 2020.

Rewa UMSPP is the first renewable project in India

The project has received World Bank Group’s President’s Award for innovation and excellence and was included in the Prime Minister’s “A Book of Innovation: New Beginnings”. The Project has also been appreciated in Global Infrastructure Facility, created by the World Bank, for its optimum distribution of risks and has been held as a model project for attracting investment from multilateral banks, institutional investors, etc. into emerging economies.

The Rewa Solar plant is India’s first and till now the only solar project to get funding from Clean Technology Fund (CTF), which is available at a rate of 0.25% for a 40-year period. It is also the first and the only solar park in India to get a concessional loan from the World Bank. The development of internal evacuation infrastructure of the plant has been undertaken with concessional funds from CTF and World Bank. IREDA has provided long term loan to RUMSL for 750 MW Rewa Solar Project under World Bank’s ‘Shared Infrastructure for Solar Parks’ scheme. This has enabled Rewa Project to have very low solar park charges, which was one of the contributing features behind the low tariff achieved in Rewa Project. The internal evacuation infrastructure has been developed with support from MP Transco.  PGCIL has developed a 220/400 kV Inter-state transmission system for the project, which is without any expenditure to RUMS or the state of Madhya Pradesh.