Blogs
Cabinet approval for rooftop and rural solar schemes means little
24 February 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Last week, India’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs finally issued its approval for two signature policy schemes announced by the government more than a year ago. The two schemes – SRISTI, covering rooftop solar and KUSUM, covering
Uttar Pradesh deals a blow to rooftop solar
22 February 2019 | Arti Mishra Saran
In January 2019, Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) issued new Rooftop Solar PV Grid Interactive Systems Gross / Net Metering (RSVP) Regulations, 2019. These regulations supersede
Renewable Energy Certificate market has lost its relevance
18 February 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Something unique happened in the Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) market last month. Prices of solar RECs moved above the specified floor (INR 1,000/ MWh) for the first time ever and touched INR 1,750/ MWh. Non-solar RECs also traded above the floor level at INR 1,500/ MWh. The price jump came even as trading volumes continued to stay low. The reason for price rise is that the REC...
DISCOM payment delays sapping industry confidence
11 February 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
A DISCOM payment crisis has been building up again in India. The Ministry of Power payments portal shows that outstanding dues increased to INR 410 billion (USD 5.9 billion) by November 2018 (March 2018: INR 250 billion). These numbers are based on limited available data, actual amounts are likely to be much larger. Worst...
MNRE refuses to give up on manufacturing
04 February 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
After failure of its flagship 10 GW integrated manufacturing tender, SECI has issued another integrated tender combining project development (3 GW) and module...
OPEX market continues to gain share but for how long?
31 January 2019 | Jyoti Gulia
Rooftop solar market in India has seen share of OPEX model increase from barely 2% in 2012 to an estimated 35% as of September 2018. The model is growing rapidly as it is very attractive particularly for the C&I consumers – they make assured cost savings over grid power without any upfront...
Gujarat rides roughshod over developers
28 January 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Gujarat has cancelled the Banaskantha solar park based 700 MW utility scale solar tender for which an auction was conducted in December 2018. Winning bidders were SB Energy (250 MW, INR 2.84/ kWh), Fortum (250, 2.89) and...
General elections to slow things down but no retreat for RE
21 January 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
India’s general elections are around the corner. Scheduled date is May and final detailed time-table should be announced soon around early March. There is emerging consensus that no single party is likely to return with...
Sense of déjà vu as RE tenders soar again
14 January 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
In the last six weeks starting December 2018, 22 utility scale tenders aggregating 15,453 MW of capacity have been issued for wind and solar power projects in India. This spree has come as MNRE announced a revised plan in December 2018 to issue tenders for an aggregate capacity of 80,000 MW by...
Blockchain adoption needs significant policy shift
14 January 2019 | Tanmay Sardana
The state of Uttar Pradesh is gearing up to apply blockchain technology to the energy sector. In October 2018, UPERC, the state regulator, organized a conference on creation of an eco-system using blockchain technology to explore decentralized energy trading, track RE production and...
Five charts summarising RE development in 2018
14 January 2019 | Surbhi Singhvi
2018 was the first year to see a dip in RE capacity addition in India. The highest reduction was in wind (-52%), followed by utility scale solar (-29%) but rooftop solar continued to grow healthily (+73%). Figure 1: RE capacity addition, MW Source: BRIDGE TO INDIA research 2018 saw a huge surge in new tenders. However, actual project allocation was much less due to multiple...
Can ‘power for all’ turn into a reality?
07 January 2019 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
The Indian government’s revised deadline for providing universal electricity access to all households under the SAUBHAGYA scheme lapsed on 31 December, 2018. The scheme portal shows that 24 million households, 97% of the revised target, have been electrified since October 2017. The only states yet to achieve...
