Renewable Energy Ministry to set up 1000 MW wind power projects

The New and Renewable Energy Ministry plans to set up grid-connected 1,000 megawatt (MW) wind energy projects which will supply power at price discovered through competitive bidding.

The ministry today sanctioned a scheme for setting up 1,000 MW CTU-connected wind power projects, an official said.

The ministry has invited public comments by June 24 on the draft guidelines for implementation of the scheme.

The 1,000 MW capacity is envisaged for bidding in 2016-17. The project capacity will be determined by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for each tender, but will not be less than 25 MW for a single project developer at one site.

The scheme for setting up of 1000 MW wind power projects connected to transmission network of Central transmission Utility (CTU), through SECI will be implemented to supply power to discoms of non-windy state.

SECI will be the nodal agency for implementation of this Scheme. It will develop guidelines for e-bidding process followed by e-reverse auction for eligible bidders and develop a suitable mechanism for monitoring the performance of the projects. No separate funding shall be provided by the ministry to SECI for this purpose as per the scheme.

The objectives of the scheme is to facilitate supply of wind power to the non-windy states at a price discovered through transparent bidding process.

Besides it will encourage competitiveness through scaling up of project sizes and introduction of efficient and transparent e-bidding and e-auctioning processes.

It will also facilitate fulfillment of Non Solar Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) requirement of non-windy states.

The wind power deployment in the country started in early 90s. The present wind power installed capacity in the country is nearly 26.7 GW sharing around 9 per cent of total installed capacity.

Globally India is at 4th position in terms of wind power installed capacity after China, USA and Germany. Centre has set an ambitious target of target of achieving 175 GW power capacity from renewable energy resources by 2022 and out of this 60 GW to come from wind power.