The second edition of India’s flagship renewable energy event, RE-INVEST 2018 kicked off on October 2, along with two more global events including the first assembly of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the second.
CLP India is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Light and Power (CLP) Holdings Limited, one of the largest investor-owned power businesses in Asia. CLP entered the Indian power market in 2002 and has since expanded its portfolio to over 3,000 MW, comprising supercritical coal, gas-fired, wind and solar power plants.
Introduced in 2017, competitive bidding for wind power projects has yielded several positives. The bidding mechanism has created a more transparent and competitive industry, as tariffs are determined based on developers’ analysis of location, counterparty risks, wind conditions and other project-specific factors as well as a company’s ability to do financial engineering. Project sizes have become much larger, thereby providing better economies of scale.
The wind industry has been facing several issues since the adoption of the competitive bidding mechanism. Market dynamics are changing rapidly. Wind tariffs have reached a new normal, which is more acceptable for discoms. However, the declining tariffs and unavailability of adequate transmission infrastructure have discouraged developers from participating in the new tenders. Reverse bidding has created a short-term pressure on the value chain, raising questions on the viability of projects with lower tariffs. At Renewable Watch’s “Wind Power in India” conference, key developers discussed the current state of affairs, challenges and market outlook…
The past year has been a mixed bag of developments for the Indian wind power segment, with bids becoming increasingly aggressive and tariffs continuing to head south. Lenders, investors and financiers are increasingly facing the heat as developer margins continue to diminish. Meanwhile, access to competitive low-cost, long-term finance continues to be a challenge. New sources of finance are also facing some resistance considering the country’s traditional dependence on debt financing instruments. Key financiers came together at Renewable Watch’s eighth annual conference on wind power to discuss the financial challenges in the segment, the role of bonds, the prevailing low-tariff environment and the segment outlook. Excerpts…
In a recent press statement, R.K. Singh, minister for power and renewable energy, said, “The country will overachieve its 175 GW renewable energy capacity target on the back of new schemes like wind-solar hybrids, floating solar, manufacturing-linked solar and offshore wind projects.” He believes that India will add 227 GW of renewable energy capacity by March 2022, which is more than the set target of 175 GW. The government has been actively promoting these new areas of growth – a target of 10 GW has been set for wind-solar hybrids and 5 GW for offshore wind by 2022. A number of developments have taken place recently in this space, promising a huge opportunity for project developers and investors.
India’s wind resource assessment (WRA) programme started in 1984 under the aegis of the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, now the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), and was undertaken by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorological Department. Since then, the country has come a long way from assessing wind potential at 20 metre hub height to setting up wind masts at 120 metre and above heights.
The North Sea has witnessed significant offshore wind power activity in the past few years. With 11.2 GW of offshore wind capacity, the North Sea accounted for 60 per cent of the global offshore wind installed base (18.8 GW) and over 70 per cent of the European offshore capacity (15.8 GW) at the end of 2017.
To address the issues of demand-supply mismatch, energy security and climate change, the government, along with various state agencies, has been focusing on renewable energy development. However, land unavailability and transmission constraints make this a challenging task. In the past, many tenders have been postponed due to one or both of these limitations. In addition, solar and wind are intermittent energy sources, which makes it difficult to maintain the balance between power supply and demand at all times.
In Maharashtra, 149,761 MUs of energy demand was recorded in 2017-18, the highest among all states in the country. To cater to this demand, the state has significantly improved its power supply situation in the past few years. Maharashtra reported an energy deficit of only 0.2 per cent in 2017-18, a testimony to the resolution of the state’s demand-supply mismatch problem. The state authorities are focusing on increasing energy generation, particularly from renewable energy sources. In fact, the total energy generated in the state grew by 5.26 per cent from 2016-17 to 2017-18. Maharashtra also has the highest installed power capacity (43 GW as of June 2018) in the country.
On May 25, 2018, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) issued the guidelines for setting up 2,500 MW of ISTS-connected wind-solar hybrid power projects under the National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy. The guidelines provide a framework for promoting grid-connected wind-solar photovoltaic (PV) hybrid systems in order to ensure optimal utilisation of transmission infrastructure and land, reduce the variability in renewable power generation, and achieve better grid stability.
By 2022, India is expected to reach the 550 GW installed capacity mark and the renewable capacity share is expected to increase from the current 20 per cent to 33 per cent. The government is taking rapid strides for tendering wind and solar capacities to achieve its set targets. Over the past year, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has announced bids for about 6 GW and 7 GW of ISTS-connected wind and solar capacity respectively and more such tenders are expected to be rolled out within 2018-19 itself. Thus, a large part of the upcoming renewable capacity is likely to be interconnected through the interstate transmission system (ISTS) system, calling for rapid transmission infrastructure addition.
The year 2018 has proved to be an eventful one for the country’s renewable energy sector. India has moved up three spots to occupy the second position on the world renewable energy map, as indicated by Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s Climatescope 2018 report. Entrepreneurship has reached an all-time high with several new players backing renewables, even at the expense of coal. Meanwhile, tariffs are falling and have reached a record low, making renewables a preferred choice of power for discoms. The latest tariffs discovered for rooftop solar projects have broken the lowest record for utility-scale projects. New project designs and ideas such as floating solar and wind-solar hybrids have become a reality and are now being explored on a commercial scale. There has been some positive movement on the energy storage front as well, with greater attention being given to electric vehicles (EVs), which may drive down the cost of this technology.
Assam Power Generation Corporation Limited (APGCL) has invited Request for Proposal bids for selection of the solar power developer for the implementation of the 70 MW solar PV power project in Amguri, Assam.
The Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency (UPNEDA) has invited Request for Proposal bids for the development of the 500 MW grid-connected solar PV power project in Uttar Pradesh. The scope of work includes design, supply, construction, procurement, installation, testing, and commissioning of the project.
The story of Avaada Power began in 2016 when Welspun Renewable Energy, co-founded by Vineet Mittal and B.K. Goenka, sold its renewable energy portfolio of 1,140 MW to Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited for about Rs 92.5 billion. A part of the sale proceeds were used by the two founders to start a new venture, Avaada Power. Welspun’s engineering, procurement and construction business was also demerged and transferred to a subsidiary of Avaada.
Andhra Pradesh has emerged as a front runner in the country’s renewable energy sector with 2,591 GW of solar power and 4,057 GW of wind power capacity installed as of September 2018. Owing to rich resource availability, the state has the potential to develop 38 GW of solar and 44 GW of wind power.
India’s solar power capacity is expected to reach 80-90 GW by 2022, according to industry analysts, about 10 per cent short of the 100 GW target set by the government. This translates into a Rs 28 billion opportunity for the solar power operations and maintenance (O&M) segment. The need for O&M has assumed greater importance in light of narrowing developer margins owing to falling solar power tariffs. To improve revenues through better generation and reduced unplanned downtime, more efficient O&M practices are required. Moreover, O&M services will need to evolve to align with evolving solar power technologies with unproven track records and unknown operational challenges.
Wind power development started in India in the mid-1990s, nearly twenty-five years ago. Since then, the country has seen rapid growth in this segment. It currently has about 35 GW of installed capacity and ranks fourth in global wind capacity installations. According to estimates, many of these projects are located in high-wind sites, with wind turbine generators (WTGs) of capacities lower than 500 kW and hub heights of not more than 30 metres. Hence, the energy generation at these wind farms is much lower than that possible at the same sites using modern higher capacity turbines.
The dynamics of financing renewable energy projects in India have evolved as the sector is undergoing a paradigm shift. Deemed to already be a challenge, access to competitive finance for projects has become an even bigger hurdle as profit margins diminish and the payback periods increase. In fact, sensing the increasing reluctance of lenders to invest in renewable energy projects in India, R.K. Singh, minister of new and renewable energy, had to call a meeting of all stakeholders in September 2018 to address the pressing concerns such as operational risks regarding renegotiation of power purchase agreements (PPAs), threat of backing-down of power, removal of must-run status, and low tariffs.
