Govt sacks SECI CMD RP Gupta amid raft of controversies

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On May 10, the government terminated the services of RP Gupta, chairman and managing director of Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), with “immediate effect”.

The order issued by the appointments committee of the cabinet did not cite any reason but government sources told Moneycontrol that it was in the wake of SECI being mired in a series of controversies over the past eight months, some of which also hinted at possible malpractices.

In November last year, SECI was mentioned in the US Securities and Exchange Commission's indictment of the Adani group for alleged bribery of about $250 million to secure power purchase agreements (PPA) for solar energy projects in Andhra Pradesh. The bribes were purportedly offered to officials of the state discoms, which agreed to purchase 7,000 MW of solar power from SECI as part of a manufacturing-linked project. The deal was executed when the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress (YSRC) party was in power in the state.

Also read: All you need to know about SECI — the hitherto low-profile PSU suddenly in the limelight.

Another issue came to light in October last year, when the Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Power submitted invalid bank documents for a tender floated by SECI, and yet the central public sector company allowed it to participate in the bidding.

The third controversy occurred in January this year when the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), the quasi-judicial apex sector regulator, rejected the tariff discovered in the first ever grid-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) awarded by SECI in 2022.

Also read: Rise in green energy projects fuels surge in unsigned power purchase deals, says Centre.

The CERC cited “delay in signing power supply and purchase agreements (PSA and PPA)” and reduction in BESS prices over the last two years as the reason for rejecting the tariff. The winning bidder, JSW Energy, in an exchange notification in January said it has moved court to challenge this decision.

Besides, SECI has also not been able to solve the issue of unsigned PPAs, which has emerged as one of the biggest bottlenecks in the renewable energy sector in India.

Gupta was at the helm of SECI from June 2023 and his tenure was supposed to end next month. The sudden termination order came even as the government is yet to initiate the process of finding a replacement. Gupta declined to comment on the development, while SECI did not respond to Moneycontrol's queries.

A 1987 batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, Gupta retired as secretary at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in 2021 and joined SECI in June 2023. A graduate in aerospace engineering from IIT Kanpur, he also worked with Niti Aayog and the ministry of coal.