Govt plans to auction projects every month
The Central government is considering to auction wind power projects every month, while keeping in mind that the bid prices do not go “haywire” as industry may think that there are “too many bids coming in”. We would bring out bids of wind power projects every month as desired by the minister, said Anand Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), in New Delhi on Friday. Kumar was peaking at a function in New Delhi where Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) were signed for purchase of 1050 MW of wind power under MNRE’s first wind auction scheme. However, Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, who was presiding over the function, said in his speech: “You (Kumar) did mention my request about bid every month… I would also like to caution you that if you find that the pricing is going haywire because people think that there are too many bids coming in, then you should also go slow on it. So, monitor the price of bids, and then calibrate the (timing of) bidding.” “Don’t let the industry also get the feeling that as so many bids are going to come, we are free to jack up the prices. So, you have to keep monitoring and calibrating. Ultimately, people of India want competitively priced affordable power,” he added. At this function, the PPAs were signed between PTC India Ltd, the government trading company, and the successful wind power developers. As per the PPAs signed, Mytrah Energy, Inox Wind and Ostro Kutch Wind would supply wind power of capacity 250 MW each. Further, Green Infra and Adani Green Energy would supply 249.9 MW and 50 MW, respectively, from their wind power projects through inter-state transmission system at a tariff of Rs 3.46 per kWh. The power minister said it was time for the government to have a relook at whether there was really a need to have separate Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPOs). “At some stage, we may also have to review that till when are we going to have separate renewable purchase obligations (RPOs) for solar and non-solar sources. I think that the time has come to have a re-look if we need to have separate RPOs anymore. We should leave it to the states to decide what is in their best interest, how they can serve their people best. And why should we anymore be looking at different mixes – somebody wants to have 100 per cent wind energy, so be it. Someone wants to send 100 per cent solar energy, so be it…We have to move on continuously and we need to break the silos.” The Centre plans to auction wind power projects of about 4 GW capacity in tranches in FY18. The auction is part of the government’s plan to set up wind power capacity of 60 GW by 2022.
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