Govt mulling 2-3 tariff-based auctions for wind projects

Buoyed by the success of 2 tariff-based bidding for wind power projects, government will go ahead with 2-3 more such auctions for around 3 GW capacity, which may stagger to 2018, a senior official said.
The tariff-based competitive bidding for 1 GW wind projects brought down the tariff to a record low of Rs 3.46 per unit in February this year which further dropped to all time low of Rs 2.64 per unit in a similar auction earlier this month.
State-run Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) was the nodal agency for conducting these two auctions.
"We will go for 2-3 more such auctions for the wind power projects as there were very encouraging results in bidding this month for 1 GW capacity where tariff dropped to Rs 2.64 per unit," a senior official of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy told PTI.

Asked whether these auctions would be held by this fiscal end, the official replied they may stagger to 2018.
"There is a due process for conducting such auctions and these are purely demand based. It will all depend on demand. But we are sure about 2-3 more round of auctions for wind power project," he said.

The ministry had planned auction of 4 GW wind projects during the current fiscal, which is also needed to meet the target of having 60 GW of wind generation capacity by 2022.
At present, India has wind power capacity of 32.5 GW. Therefore, India would have to add around 6 GW to achieve the target of 60 GW by 2022.

Solar power has seen a similar play, where the tariff had dropped to a record low of Rs 2.44 per unit in a tariff-driven bidding earlier this year.
The competitive wind and solar tariff will be a big boost for India's ambitious target of achieving 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022. Investment of USD 100 billion is required to achieve this target, as per the government estimates.
India already has an installed renewable power generation capacity of 60 GW.