India plans to auction 4GW by March 2018

INDIA: The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is preparing to hold auctions for 4GW of wind capacity in the current financial year, with about 1GW going under the hammer before the end of May.

by Suuhas Tenddulkar 8 May 2017

India's energy ministry is looking to auction a further 4GW this fiscal year

After the successful first auction of 1GW wind power capacity in February, MNRE is planning a further 4GW by the end of March 2018.

In a statement, the ministry said: "We do not apply interstate transmission charges. The benefit of that can be reaped by states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which do not have sufficient wind capacity. We saw wind bidding for 1GW at INR 3.46/kWh in February.

"These states can utilise the power from states which have a higher wind capacity at lower rates and can also fulfil their renewable purchase obligations (RPO)."

Although the plans for the current fiscal talk about 4GW, the Ministry is keen to up the ante and is expected to support at least 6GW auctions from the next fiscal period running to 2022.

The results of February's auctions were so low, some state utilities are looking at their feed-in tariff systems and questioning a move to an auction-based system to match the low prices.