Government issues guidelines for wind power projects

Wind power projects are set up in the country, including in the state of Rajasthan, on the basis of commercial principles taking into account wind resource, land availability, transmission infrastructure, etc. So far, bids for 15,100 MW of wind power projects have been issued, out of which projects of 12,162.50 MW capacity have been awarded. The cumulative installed capacity of wind power (as on 31st October 2019) in the country is 37,090.03 MW.

The Government has issued “Guidelines for Development of Onshore Wind Power Projects” on 22nd October 2016 with an objective to facilitate development of wind power projects in an efficient, costeffective and environmentally benign manner taking into account the requirements of project developers, state and national imperatives. The Guidelines have provisions for requirement of site feasibility, type and quality certified wind turbines, micrositing criteria, compliance of grid regulations, real-time monitoring, online registry and performance reporting, health and safety provisions, decommissioning plan, etc.

The government has also issued “Guidelines for Tariff Based Competitive Bidding Process for Procurement of Power from Grid Connected Wind Power Projects”, on 8th December 2017, with an objective to provide a framework for procurement of wind power through a transparent process of bidding, including standardisation of the process and defining of roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders.

The government is promoting capacity addition of wind power projects through private sector investment by providing various fiscal and financial incentives such as Accelerated Depreciation benefit, and concessional custom duty exemption on certain components of wind electric generators. Besides, Generation Based Incentive (GBI) is available for the wind projects commissioned before 31st March 2017. In addition to fiscal and other incentives as stated above, technical support including wind resource assessment and identification of potential sites is being provided through the National Institute of Wind Energy, Chennai.