Andhra Pradesh Launches 93 MW Rooftop Solar Bid Under PM Surya Ghar Scheme

The Southern Power Distribution Company of Andhra Pradesh (APSPDCL) has floated tenders for 93.2 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar projects, marking one of the largest single utility-led rooftop solar bids issued under the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana scheme in southern India. The projects will be developed through the utility-led aggregation capital expenditure — or CAPEX — model, entirely within the jurisdiction of the Kuppam Rural Electric Cooperative Society (KRECS) in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. This is a significant move for a state that has already established itself as a frontline player in India's renewable energy buildout, sitting alongside Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu as a key capacity contributor toward India's 500 GW non-fossil fuel target by 2030. The PM Surya Ghar scheme, launched by the central government in February 2024 with an outlay of ₹75,021 crore, aims to install rooftop solar on 10 million households across India. APSPDCL's 93.2 MW bid signals that state utilities are now stepping up as active aggregators rather than passive grid operators in this national push.

How Does the CAPEX Model Work for Rooftop Solar?

Under the utility-led aggregation CAPEX model deployed in this tender, APSPDCL will procure and install rooftop solar systems on behalf of residential consumers within KRECS's service territory, covering Kuppam and surrounding rural areas of Chittoor district. The upfront capital expenditure is borne either by the utility or through subsidies routed from the central government under PM Surya Ghar, with consumers benefiting from reduced electricity bills and, in many cases, free units of power — the 'muft bijli' promise at the heart of the scheme. Bidders will be evaluated on their ability to supply, install, commission, and maintain the rooftop systems across a geographically dispersed residential base, which typically involves hundreds or even thousands of individual installations rather than a single utility-scale project. This model has been piloted in various forms by discoms in Gujarat and Rajasthan, but its deployment in rural cooperative society jurisdictions in Andhra Pradesh represents a meaningful expansion of the approach into underserved grid segments.

The CAPEX route is widely regarded as better suited to lower-income households than the RESCO model — where a third party owns the panels and sells power to the consumer — because it gives homeowners clear asset ownership and access to central government subsidies of up to ₹78,000 per household under PM Surya Ghar. For APSPDCL, aggregating demand under one tender reduces transaction costs and allows economies of scale in procurement, which should translate into lower per-watt installation costs across the 93.2 MW portfolio.

Why Kuppam and KRECS Matter to Andhra Pradesh Solar Goals

Kuppam, located in the tri-junction zone of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, has historically been an area of political significance — it is the constituency of former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who returned to power in 2024. The choice of KRECS as the nodal cooperative for this 93.2 MW deployment reflects both political priority and a practical logic: rural electric cooperative societies have direct last-mile connectivity to dispersed household consumers who are precisely the target beneficiaries of PM Surya Ghar. Andhra Pradesh has set an installed renewable energy capacity target of 29 GW by 2030 under its updated energy policy, and rooftop solar is expected to contribute a meaningful share through schemes like this one. The state already hosts large utility-scale solar parks at Ananthapuramu and Kadapa, and distributed rooftop solar deployment in districts like Chittoor adds a complementary layer of energy resilience, especially for rural feeders prone to voltage fluctuation and supply interruptions.

APSPDCL's bid also aligns with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy's (MNRE) directive to state discoms to actively facilitate rooftop solar adoption rather than treating it as a grid management challenge. Nationally, India had crossed approximately 15 GW of cumulative rooftop solar capacity by early 2025, still well short of the 40 GW rooftop target embedded in the original National Solar Mission framework. Andhra Pradesh's aggressive tendering through APSPDCL could help close that gap at the state level while providing a replicable template for other southern discoms.

What This Means for India's Energy Transition

India's 500 GW renewable energy target by 2030 cannot be achieved on utility-scale parks alone. Distributed rooftop solar — particularly on residential buildings in semi-urban and rural areas — must scale dramatically over the next five years, and PM Surya Ghar is the central government's primary vehicle for doing so. APSPDCL's 93.2 MW tender demonstrates that state utilities, when empowered and incentivised through central subsidy frameworks, can move from reluctant bystanders to active market makers. Each megawatt of rooftop solar deployed under the CAPEX model reduces a household's grid dependence, cuts the discom's aggregate technical and commercial losses over time, and contributes to India's clean energy commitments under its updated Nationally Determined Contribution submitted to the UNFCCC. For EPC contractors, solar module manufacturers, and balance-of-system suppliers operating in the Indian market, tenders of this scale from state-level utilities represent a growing and increasingly bankable pipeline.

Watch for APSPDCL to issue similar tenders in other cooperative society jurisdictions across its service area in the coming quarters. MNRE's push to enrol 10 million households by 2027 means state utilities across India — from Maharashtra to Uttar Pradesh — will face pressure to replicate the Andhra Pradesh model. Developers and investors tracking India rooftop solar should monitor SECI and state discom portals closely for the next wave of PM Surya Ghar CAPEX tenders.