Blogs
Ancillary services market still at an early stage of development
28 May 2019 | Surbhi Singhvi
CERC released a discussion paper for a redesign of ancillary services mechanism in India in September 2018. The paper has been issued in response to various shortcomings in the existing...
Busy agenda for the new government
28 May 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Contrary to most expectations, the BJP led political alliance has won the general election with a thumping majority, even bigger than in 2014. Prime Minister Modi is expected to take oath for the next five-year term on 30 May 2019. It seems that the cabinet of ministers could also be sworn simultaneously. It will be interesting to watch who assumes charge of MNRE particularly as the Prime...
Mono-crystalline modules beginning to gain acceptance in India
23 May 2019 | Jyoti Gulia
The mono-crystalline module market has finally started gaining traction in India. In April 2019, ReNew announced commissioning of its 300 MW solar project using mono-crystalline modules in Pavagada solar park, Karnataka. Other utility scale project developers including...
Optimistic outlook for renewable energy needs backing up
21 May 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
BRIDGE TO INDIA has released results of the fourth RE CEO survey. The survey received responses from 41 industry leaders covering full spectrum of companies across the value chain and geographies. The two main findings of the survey, relating to business sentiment and expected capacity addition in the next 5 years, are...
Risk profile of Indian RE not conducive for INVITs
16 May 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Indian financial services group, Piramal Enterprises, and the Canadian pension fund major, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), have announced plans to set up an RE-focused infrastructure investment trust (INVIT). Initial corpus is expected to be USD 600 million with CPPIB and Piramal committing USD 360 million and USD 90 million respectively. Balance would come from other...
Need for an urgent reassessment of tender programme
08 May 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Gujarat’s latest utility scale solar tender – 700 MW in Raghanesda solar park – has been
Public sector rooftop market stays sluggish
30 April 2019 | Prantik Mitra
SECI issued a new tender in February 2019 for development of 97.5 MW grid-connected rooftop solar projects. These projects will be developed on pre-identified government buildings across all 36 states and union territories under CAPEX and OPEX modes (12.5 and 85 MW respectively). This is the first rooftop solar tender issued by SECI after the
Time to reconsider manufacturing policy
30 April 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Bid submission date for SECI’s 3 GW manufacturing linked tender has been extended again due to lack of responses. We understand that SECI has received no responses so far and it looks...
Solar park scheme simplified and downscaled
23 April 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
In March this year, MNRE introduced significant changes to the government’s solar park scheme. The amendment envisages SECI acting as the solar park developer and paring down the scope of services to bare bones land and external transmission infrastructure. Internal transmission and all other infrastructure facilities (site levelling and fencing, access to water and electricity, drainage etc)...
Time to act on PV waste management
18 April 2019 | Surbhi Singhvi
Following a recent blueprint on use of antimony in glass used in solar modules by MNRE, India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) is expected to announce a policy on waste management by end-April 2019. This process follows an
Financially weak DISCOMs the darkest cloud on the horizon
16 April 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
In November 2015, the Indian government announced UDAY scheme to restructure DISCOM balance sheets and address persistent concerns about their poor bankability. The scheme, the third such restructuring package for DISCOMs in the last seventeen years, was...
Bold vision but half-baked implementation
10 April 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Last three months have seen frantic activity in the renewable energy sector. Many new policies – SRISTI and KUSUM, FAME, storage, ALMM – and tenders aggregating 30 GW were rushed in the last quarter but we now have a relatively quiet six week period until the last votes are cast on 19 May 2019…
