The Solar Energy Corporation of India’s (SECI) tender for 1,200 MW of ISTS-connected wind power projects on a pan-India basis under tranche-VII has been undersubscribed by 50%. SECI had tendered the capacity in February 2019.

A SECI official confirmed to Mercom the submission of the bids for the wind auction.

According to a wind industry source, “In all, bids totaling 600 MW have been submitted against the tendered capacity of 1,200 MW. Engie bid for 200 MW, Sprng Energy has bid for 100 MW; ReNew Power has bid for 50 MW and Adani Green Energy for 250 MW.”

A top executive at one of the bidders said, “the main reason for tender under subscription is the tariff cap of ₹2.83 (~$0.041)/kWh.”

Recently, Mercom reported about the four wind project developers that quoted the lowest (L1) tariff of ₹2.82 (~$0.040)/kWh in the auction held by SECI for 1,200 MW of ISTS-connected wind projects issued under Tranche-VI. The 1.2 GW wind tender floated by SECI was oversubscribed by 1,125 MW, and bids totaling 2,325 MW were submitted by a total of nine participants.

In this auction, surprisingly the companies bid below the current tariff cap. Then, why the issue now? To this, the executive replied, “It is low this time as good generation sites have already been tapped in tenders up to SECI ‘tranche-VI. Now, finding new sites is getting tougher. OEMs are failing, pushing developers to move towards costlier foreign suppliers.”

The executive further elaborated, “Wind power projects, including the new ones, are not generating power as expected. There is little to no financing available in the domestic market. Even for the previous projects, the land has become scarce, and developers are struggling to meet the timeline.”

Recently, Mercom reported that SECI had announced another tender for 1,800 MW of ISTS-connected wind power projects under Tranche-VIII to be developed anywhere in India.