The government on May 4 announced signing of Memorandum of Agreements (MoAs) for purchase of 1,000 MW wind power under its first wind auction scheme.

“MoAs for purchase of 1000 MW wind power under MNRE's first wind auction scheme were signed here on between PTC India, the trading company, and discoms of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi, Odisha and Assam,” Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) said in a statement.

The signing ceremony took place during the two-day Conference of Power, New & Renewable Energy & Mines Ministers of States and UTs.

“As per MoAs, the discoms of UP to buy 449.9 MW, Bihar 200 MW, Jharkhand 200 MW, Delhi 100 MW, Assam 50 MW and Odisha 50 MW wind power for meeting their non-solar RPO (renewable powerobligation),” it said.

The Letter of Award (LoA) to the successful wind power developers under the scheme has been issued by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) on April 5 and the projects are to be commissioned within 18 months from the date of issue of LoA, it said.

This was the first time such auction process was done in the country for wind power through e-reverse auction and its success can be seen from the fact that a record low tariffs of Rs.3.46 per kWh was obtained.

With the success of first wind auction scheme, MNRE on May 4 launched the scheme for another round of wind auction for 1000 MW capacity wind power projects, it said.

The scheme is open for all obligated entities purchasing wind power for compliance of their non-solar RPO.

The differentiation between windy and non-windy states has been done away with. The SECI will sign Power Purchase Agreements with selected wind developers and back-to-back Power Sale Agreements with buying utilities.

Further, provision of 10 per cent additional capacity for Central Public Sector Entities (CPSEs) has been kept under the Scheme without participation in the bidding, however, they have to supply wind power at lowest discovered tariff through bidding process.

The Ministry sanctioned a scheme for setting up of 1000 MW ISTS connected wind power project on 14 June 2016, with the objective to encourage competitiveness through scaling up of project sizes and introduction of efficient and transparent e-bidding and e-auctioning processes.