With the Indian government planning to organised an increasing number of reverse auctions for wind energy projects, several states are rethinking whether to continue with the feed-in tariffs at all.
Karnataka has become the latest state to ask its power utilities not to sign any new power purchase agreements with wind energy developers at feed-in tariffs. Regulatory bodies in Indian state have asked power utilities to procure wind energy only up to the renewable purchase obligation targets and no more.
The Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission had set the feed-in tariff for wind energy projects as Rs 4.50/kWh (7.0¢/kWh) till October 2018. However, the recent auction conducted by the central government saw developers willing to pay as low as Rs 3.46/kWh (5.4¢/kWh). According to media reports, the commission believes a tariff of Rs 3.61/kWh (5.6¢/kWh) is more acceptable.
States of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh have declined to sign any fresh power purchase agreements with wind energy project developers. The power distribution companies in these states have expressed reluctance to the respective regulatory bodies in signing PPAs at feed-in tariffs higher than the recently discovered tariffs.
Four companies – Mytrah Energy, Green Infra (owned by Sembcorp), Inox Wind and Ostro Energy were awarded 250 megawatts capacity each while Adani Green Energy secured rights to develop 50 megawatts capacity.
India plans to have an installed wind energy capacity of 60 gigawatts by March 2022 while the current installed capacity is just over 32 gigawatts. To achieve that target, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy shall auction five to six gigawatts capacity every year. One gigawatt capacity has already been auctioned while the Ministry is expected to put on the block an additional four gigawatts capacity by March 2018.
