India wind power tariff falls to lowest ever level of Rs3.46 per unit

New Delhi: Wind power tariffs followed the solar route and fell below Rs3.46 per kilowatt hour (kWh), in a 1 gigawatt (GW) tender by state-run Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI).

Mytrah Energy (India) Ltd, IDFC Alternatives-backed clean energy firm Green Infra Ltd, global private equity fund's Actis Llp's platform Ostro Kutch Wind Pvt. Ltd and Inox Wind Infrastructure Services Ltd bid Rs3.46 per unit to win contracts for 250 MW each, said several people aware of the development.

These firms quoted these prices, at which they will sell electricity, to win contracts for the tender that had received 2.6 times the grid-linked capacity being sold.

Tariffs have hitherto ranged from Rs3.9 per kWh to Rs5.9 per kWh.

"After solar cost reduction below Rs3/unit, wind power cost down to Rs3.46/unit through transparent auction. A green future awaits India," said Piyush Goyal, minister for power, coal, mines and new and renewable energy in a tweet.

The sector has been hit by inordinate delays in signing of power purchase agreements and untimely payments; distribution firms have shied away from procuring electricity generated by wind projects.

The other firms participating in the bid were: ReGen Powertech Pvt. Ltd, India's first Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan's family-promoted Leap Green Energy Pvt. Ltd, Singapore-based Sembcorp Industries Ltd, Gamesa Renewable Pvt. Ltd, ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd, Hero Future Energies Ltd,



RP-Sanjiv Goenka's Group CESC Ltd, and Adani Green Energy Ltd.

"With the discovered tariff of Rs. 3.46, this auction will be disruptive for the wind industry. It will be interesting to see how banks, OEMs and developers work together to commission these projects-at these tariffs, the projects will need to be delivered at substantially lower project cost to ensure viability. Also, this tariff should not be considered as a benchmark in lower wind regime states. Overall, this is a positive development as this brings competition and transparency in the sector," said Srishti Ahuja, director at consulting firm EY.

"Today, if you see, pan-India wind power tariff is between Rs 4-5 per unit... So these (prices) are a significant improvement from current prices," added Vinay Rustagi, managing director at Bridge to India, a renewable energy consulting firm. "These are going to be first wind power project connected to national grid and would sell anywhere in India. So this significantly reduces the cost of renewable power."

The government plans to achieve 175GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 as part of its commitments to the Paris climate change agreement. This includes 60GW from wind power.

The price gap between electricity generated from thermal, solar and wind projects has been narrowing. This is primarily due to costs of solar modules and wind turbine generators falling by 80% and 20%, respectively, over the past five years.