Six months after the first auction of wind power projects was held, tariff fell to record Rs 3.42 per unit. In the project bidding held by Tamil Nadu for 500 MW of wind power projects, three companies would now set up 900 MW of wind projects.
Regen Power Tech won 250 MW at the lowest quoted tariff of Rs 3.42 per MW followed by F1 racer N Karthikeyan promoted Leap Green Energy which bid 250 MW at Rs 3.43 per unit. Neyveli Lignite Limited won 400 MW at Rs 3.45 per unit. These are fixed tariff for a period of 25 years.
All the three bidders would qualify to put up projects as Tamil Nadu has put the ceiling tariff of Rs 3.46 per unit. Anyone bidding below it qualified to set up power project. In the first wind auction which was held in February by central agency SECI, the tariff was Rs 3.46 per unit.
As per the tender document, the project location and constructing power evacuation infrastructure till the nearest sub-station is the prerogative of the wind power generator. The project developers have 10 months to construct the projects from the date of signing of the power purchase agreements.
The bids received is extremely lower than the current average Feed-in-tariff (FiT) of Rs 5 per unit in the wind sector.
The current government has retired the feed-in-tariff regime in the wind sector to introduce more competition and bring down prices. Aiming at an ambitious target, the ministry of new and renewable energy plans to auction wind power projects every month. However, it will strictly monitor the bid prices to keep them in affordable levels, Piyush Goyal, minister of state for coal, power, new & renewable energy and mines said in July.