New Delhi: Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy, Shri Raj Kumar Singh, in a written reply to a question on total wind capacity addition this year, in Lok Sabha today informed that as on 30.11.2017, a cumulative capacity of 467 MW of grid interactive wind power has been installed during the current financial year. Earlier the wind power projects were being set–up on the basis of Feed–in–Tariff (FiT) determined by respective State Regulators. In February 2017, competitive bidding route was also adopted to install the wind power projects, the Minister added.
The Minister said that Solar Energy Corporation of India finalised the bids for 1000 MW of Inter–State Transmission System (ISTS) connected wind power projects in February 2017 and bids for another 1000 MW ISTS connected wind power projects were finalised in October 2017. The bids for an additional capacity of 2000 MW ISTS connected wind power projects are scheduled for submission by 16th January 2018.
In addition, three States namely, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra, have also issued bids of 500 MW each for installation of wind power projects in these States. While bids in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu have been finalised, the scheduled bid submission date in case of Maharashtra is 20th January 2018. This Ministry further proposes to bring out bids for another 4000 MW capacity of ISTS connected wind power projects in the current financial year. In this manner cumulatively 9500 MW capacity of wind power projects would be bid out by the end of current financial year, the Minister informed.
Informing about the incentives given by Government to the Wind Sector, Shri Singh said that the Government is promoting wind power projects through private sector investment by providing various fiscal and financial incentives such as Accelerated Depreciation benefit; concessional custom duty exemption on certain components of wind electric generators. In addition, Generation Based Incentive (GBI) Scheme under which Rs.0.50/unit is provided to eligible wind power generators, with a ceiling of Rs. 1.00 crore per MW, was available for the projects commissioned before 31 March 2017 and not availing Accelerated Depreciation benefit.
Further, to tap the maximum potential of wind energy resources in the country, in addition to the providing fiscal and financial incentives as stated above, following steps also have been taken:
- Technical support including wind resource assessment and identification of potential sites is provided by the National Institute of Wind Energy, Chennai.
- In order to facilitate inter–state sale of wind power, the inter–state transmission charges and losses have been waived off for the wind projects to be commissioned by March 2019.
The Government of India has issued the Guidelines for Tariff Based Competitive Bidding Process for Procurement of Power from Grid Connected Wind Power Projects. The main objective of these Guidelines is to provide a framework for procurement of wind power through a transparent process of bidding including standardisation of the process and defining of roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders. These Guidelines aim to enable the Distribution Licensees to procure wind power at competitive rates in a cost effective manner, Shri Singh informed.
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