The Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has clarified that a renewable energy (RE) project, which has been awarded by a public sector or government entity to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of an infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) through competitive bidding is considered a public private partnership project (PPP).

The clarification by the capital markets regulator is in response to a query on RE assets, which are obtained through tariff based competitive bidding (TBCB) or any other competitive bidding mechanism with government entities as Offtakers, should be considered as PPP Projects.

“Without necessarily agreeing with your analysis, you may note that a project for generation and supply of RE, awarded by a public sector entity/ government entity to a SPV of an InviT, which is selected on the basis of open competitive bidding or on the basis of an MoU with the public sector entity/ government entity, is considered as a PPP project under Regulation 2(1)(zm) of the InvIT Regulations,” SEBI clarified.

The regulator emphasised that ‘Electricity Generation’, ‘Electricity Transmission’ and ‘Electricity Distribution’ are covered under S.No. 2 in the list of infrastructure sub-sectors in the Updated Harmonized Master List of infrastructure sub-sectors notified by Finance Ministry of Finance on September 19, 2025.

“Accordingly, a project for Re generation is covered under the term ‘infrastructure’ and hence ‘infrastructure project’ in terms of Regulation 2(1)(t) and Regulation 2(1)(u) of the InviT Regulations respectively,” it added.

As per the submission, SEBI said that the Nodal Agencies awarding the RE project are public sector undertakings and the project awardee is a SPV under the InviT (a private entity). The query further states that the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) inter-alia specifies allocation of risk between the SPV and the Nodal Agency, SEBI said.

“On that basis, it can be stated that such RE project is undertaken on a PPP basis between a public concessioning authority, viz. the Nodal Agency, and a private SPV concessionaire, viz. SPV held under the InvIT.

Since you have submitted that the project awardee is selected on the basis of TBCB process, it meets the requirement stated in Regulation 2(1)(zm) of the InviT Regulations that private SPV concessionaire,” it added.

Since, the InvIT regulations are self-contained pertaining to PPP projects, the PPP projects would be required to conform to the requirements of InvIT regulations, SEBI explained.

Published on May 26, 2026