The apex body in wind sector, Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association (IWTMA) addressed the media to discuss the wind power development in Rajasthan. In the year 2015-16, Rajasthan installed 688 MW and the current total installation is 4237 MW till January 2017.The wind sector expressed confidence of growth of wind energy in the State.
There is a paradigm shift to competitive bidding instead of feed in tariff (FIT) on the recent 1 GW bid organised by SECI. The industry responded well with an interest of 2644 MW by four bidders at Rs 3.46. The bid of Rs 3.46 need not be taken as an aggressive bid. Most of the bids are from Tamil Nadu, where the PLF is very high and is also based on interstate transaction with Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) network. IWTMA has requested MNRE for future bids of 5 to 6 GW so that the canvas is large and the market will grow under this process.
Giri said, “While competitive bidding is a good vehicle, open access and freedom to sell under captive and group captive is a MUST both for intra and interstate transaction. I am very confident that exports can be pushed from the current $ 500 Million to $ 2-3 Billion per year provided we get advantage of transport logistics and green line of credit to handle exports. In other words, export if planned well can result in 2 GW export per year from 2018”. Giri also mentioned that an investment friendly policy on wind solar hybrid systems and repowering will result in accelerated growth.
IWTMA also outlined the key challenges ahead in the reduction in accelerated depreciation (AD) from 80 per cent to 40 per cent and possible withdrawal of generation based incentive (GBI) in April 2017 which could see some temporary slowdown in the wind industry, but not a worrying factor.
