Govt revamps auction norms, bans reverse bidding for wind energy projects

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The Government of India has revised the auction process for wind energy projects and set a target to invite bids for 8 gigawatts (GW) of projects each year till 2030, the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) said on January 12.

The new norms will put in place a clear path for companies to bid for wind energy projects in India, the ministry said. The Centre has also disallowed reverse bidding for such projects in the future. A formal procedure has been put in place to pool all the bids to ensure that capacity addition is done across all eight windy states in the country, instead of just two.

The move comes at a time when wind energy installations have slowed down in the country, even though the government has a target of setting up wind energy projects totalling 140 GW by 2030. Against this target, India has an installed capacity of about 40 GW of wind projects, data from the ministry of new and renewable energy showed.

“Bids for a cumulative capacity of about 8 GW will be issued each year from January 1, 2023 to 2030. In order to ensure that wind energy capacity comes up in all eight windy states, every bid will be a composite bid-comprising state-specific sub-bids for each state. The power generated from the capacity established in each of the state sub-bids will be pooled and offered at pooled tariff to all procurers. The pooling of tariff will be as per the notified Electricity (Amendment) Rules, 2022,” the MNRE said in a statement.

A detailed breakup of this capacity shall be issued the by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). Also, necessary amendments in the 'Guidelines for Tariff Based Competitive Bidding Process for Procurement of power from grid connected wind power projects’ for this purpose will be notified separately by ministry.

“The bids will specify the capacity to be installed. One sub-bid will be specific to one state. The cumulative size cap in any one of the eight states in one year will not be more than 2 GW every year. SECI / implementing agency may determine the minimum and maximum bid size based on the wind purchase obligation targets of states,” it said.

In July 2022, the power ministry released its long-term growth trajectory of renewable purchase obligation (RPO) and energy storage obligation till financial year 2029-30. For 2022-23, the government has mandated that 24.61 percent of the total energy consumed in a discom’s area will have to be from renewable sources.

The RPO, for the first time, includes a mix of 0.81 percent wind power, making it mandatory for discoms to purchase wind energy. Earlier, wind power used to be included in the 'others' category, which made it optional for discoms to buy it. Other RPOs include 0.35 percent from hydropower and the remaining 23.44 percent from other renewable sources.