India’s SECI Revamps Power Contracts Amid U.S. Bribery Allegations

A government agency in India that helps promote renewable energy has changed how it gives out power contracts. This change comes after some allegations from the U.S. about bribery in certain deals. The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) helps connect renewable energy producers with power buyers and earns a commission for this service. Recently, U.S. authorities said that bribes were paid to some officials related to solar power contracts, many of which involved the Adani Group. The Adani Group has denied these allegations, calling them untrue. Although U.S. officials have not found any wrongdoing related to SECI, the agency decided to adjust its approach to issuing contracts to lower the chances of corruption.

Now, about 75% of SECI’s new contracts will be based on the actual demand from states, instead of the previous method, which mostly focused on finding suppliers first. This old way, which made up about 90% of contracts, increased the risk of corruption since some producers could influence states into agreeing to deals for power they did not really need.

The source mentioned that SECI hasn’t found any reason to investigate the deals it has been involved with, and no other agency has contacted them regarding this issue. However, the allegations against Adani Group might make foreign investors hesitant about putting money into India’s renewable energy sector. As a result, SECI expects a slowdown in new contracts for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends on March 31. Their goal was to find bidders for 15 gigawatts (GW) of power, but they have only secured about 6 to 7 GW so far. India is still about 10% short of its promise to add 175 GW of renewable power by 2022 and hopes to reach 500 GW by 2030.