The investment information and credit rating agency, ICRA, in its report informed that new wind power capacity addition, in the 12-18 month, would depend on bidding route and the subsequent PPA signing by the state-owned distribution utilities or Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI).
The execution of the 1,000 MW wind power capacity awarded under New and Renewable Energy Ministry (MNRE) scheme in February 2017 would also support the capacity addition to some extent in FY 2018-2019, said ICRA report.
“The capacity addition in wind energy was much better than our expectations due to a bunching up of commissioning in March 2017. This was due to the removal of the generation-based incentive (GBI) benefit and reduction in accelerated depreciation (AD) benefit with effect from April 1, 2017,” said Sabyasachi Majumdar, Senior Vice President & Group Head, ICRA Ratings.
Recently, the government issued draft guidelines for competitive bidding for wind power projects. As per industry sources, the distribution utilities in states like Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Gujarat are evaluating the competitive bidding mechanism for awarding wind power projects in the near term.