Blogs
Complex tender designs on the way
24 January 2020 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
MNRE has issued a draft scheme for procuring renewable power, blended with thermal power, on a round-the-clock basis with 80% overall availability. The scheme is technology agnostic. Minimum 51% of power outcome is required to come from renewable sources – with or without storage solutions. Thermal power may be supplied from existing power plants. Bidders are expected to quote a composite...
Regulators add to the pain
14 January 2020 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Maharashtra state regulator, MERC, has recently rejected most of the winning bids in two renewable energy tenders as it viewed the winning tariffs as too high or unreasonable. The two tenders include a 350 MW solar-wind hybrid tender by Adani Electricity, Mumbai DISCOM, and a 1,400 MW agricultural solar tender floated by Maharashtra State Electricity Development Corporation (MSEDCL, the...
2020 – year of prayer and hope
09 January 2020 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
As we commence the new year, there is much anticipation that 2020 would offer respite from the multitude of problems faced last year. A jump in new installations – from a total of an estimated 11.4 GW last year to 15.0 GW – would certainly provide relief to equipment suppliers and contractors. Most of the increase would come...
2019, RE’s annus horribilis
20 December 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
The Government of India is reportedly considering an ordinance to usher in reforms for the power sector in India. As per a news report, the government is seeking to bring about various legislative changes including timely payments by DISCOMs, reduction in cross...
Andhra Pradesh and Centre on escalation path
14 December 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
As per news reports, SECI is seeking to invoke its legal rights in the tripartite agreement with Andhra...
Consolidation underway in solar EPC market
04 December 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
India’s utility scale solar capacity reached 29.7 GW by September 2019, growing 25% y-o-y. A review of the EPC data shows two interesting trends. Contrary to popular perception, share of third-party EPC contractors is increasing and touched 77%, highest in the last five years. Second, there is increasing consolidation in the EPC market as many regional and smaller players have been edged out...
Fourth time lucky for the manufacturing-linked tender?
04 December 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
After several cancellations, extensions and modifications, SECI’s solar project development-cum-manufacturing tender finally received a somewhat encouraging response. In its final avatar, the tender was issued for 7,000 MW inter-state transmission system (ISTS) connected project development...
States moving away from net metering prematurely
03 December 2019 | Surbhi Singhvi
Indian states are turning their back on rooftop solar. Maharashtra recently signalled its intent to join Uttar Pradesh,
Fall in costs to bring respite to developers
26 November 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
After staying relatively stable in the past year, module prices are on the decline again. Prices of multi-crystalline modules, still the de facto choice for most Indian developers, have fallen from USD 0.23/...
Time for grid tariffs to go up
19 November 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Wind faces slow going
12 November 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
In a major relief to the sector, MNRE has granted project completion deadline extension to wind projects allocated under SECI auction tranches 1-5. More time has been granted to these projects mainly because of delays in land allocation and completion of transmission infrastructure. A total capacity of 7,200 MW was allocated by SECI in these auctions between Feb-2017 and Sep-2018, but only 1,825...
Lack of competitive advantage hurting developers
05 November 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Last week, SECI conducted auction for a 1,200 MW utility scale solar tender. The tender received bids for full 1,200...
