Blogs
Gujarat tender cancellation is ill advised
23 April 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Gujarat government has cancelled the 500-MW state tender, for which an auction was held just four weeks ago. Capacity was won in this tender by Kalthia Engineering (50 MW), Gujarat State Electricity Corporation (150 MW), Acme (100 MW) and Azure Power (200 MW). Reason for cancellation has been cited as winning tariffs, between INR 2.98 – 3.06/kWh, being “on the higher side”. In the same...
DC overloading gains increasing acceptance in India
19 April 2018 | Mudit Jain
A solar power plant rarely produces nameplate capacity power as solar modules operate at their maximum efficiency only during limited peak hours. It has therefore become routine industry practice to over-size DC module capacity, a concept commonly known as DC overloading. It allows solar plants to increase generation during non-peak hours and optimizes overall performance. In 2017, 45% of the...
SECI draws strong response to its 2000 MW wind auction
19 April 2018 | Shipra Arora
SECI conducted another e-auction for 2,000 MW of wind power projects on 6 April 2018. Winning bids were INR 2.51 – 2.52/kWh, just marginally higher than the tariffs discovered in the previous 2,000 MW SECI auction (2.44 – 2.45) held in February 2018. Winning bidders include an even spread of international and Indian names. International winners include Continuum (250 MW), Sprng (300 MW), BLP...
National Electricity Plan of limited use
18 April 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
About two weeks ago, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), a statutory agency constituted under the Ministry of Power, released final National Electricity Plan for the five-year period beginning April 2017. The Plan is an important document – it should provide a roadmap for...
MNRE allows pass-through of duty risk
10 April 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Last week, MNRE issued a clarification to its guidelines for competitive bidding of solar PV projects. The clarification allows inclusion of changes in duties and other cesses in Change in Law provisions in power purchase agreements. It effectively means that risk of any new duties or changes in duties including safeguard and/or anti-dumping duties arising after the “last date of bid...
Gujarat auction gets a tepid result
02 April 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Gujarat conducted e-auction for a 500 MW utility scale PV solar tender last week. Capacity has been won by four developers at tariffs between INR 2.98 – 3.06/ kWh – Kalthia Engineering (50 MW, INR 2.98), Gujarat State Electricity Corporation (GSEC) (150 MW, INR 3.00), Acme (100 MW, INR 3.06) and Azure (200 MW, INR 3.06). Losing bidders include Hero, Adani, Shapoorji Pallonji, Mahindra,...
Uttar Pradesh shows open access promise
29 March 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Uttar Pradesh (UP) has recently amended the Captive and Renewable Energy Regulations 2014 to provide 50% exemptions from transmission and wheeling charges for intra-state open access sale of solar power. The state agencies...
MNRE’s new quality policy creates confusion
26 March 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
MNRE’s proposed quality testing and standards regime is facing a difficult take-off. Policy ambiguity and lack of testing infrastructure have already led to multiple revisions in implementation timetable. The Indian RE sector has a major quality problem and MNRE intervention, long overdue, is highly welcome; The policy needs to be backed up with urgent investments in testing...
String inverters gaining market share in India
21 March 2018 | Mudit Jain
Share of string inverters in the Indian solar market is increasing rapidly. It went up from only 1% until 2016 to 9% in 2017 for new utility scale solar capacity commissioned. We expect the trend to accelerate even further in the coming years. Increased adoption of string inverters for utility scale projects is in line with experience in other international markets including USA and...
Rooftop solar attracts more financing
19 March 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
As the Indian rooftop solar market grows, it is attracting more attention from investors and financiers. Shell is rumoured to be entering the market in partnership with Fourth Partner, a leading rooftop solar EPC. Several...
India and France take star turns in ISA
12 March 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
International Solar Alliance (ISA) conducted a founding summit in Delhi over the last two days. The event was organized with great pomp with 21 heads of state attending besides Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and the French President, Emmanuel Macron. There were several new announcements on financing, project schemes and partnerships although most of these appear vague. That makes it...
Open access solar continues to be mired in uncertainty
05 March 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Karnataka’s attractive open access policy for solar projects is set to expire at the end of this month. That is leading to a rush in project development activity in the state, which already leads other states with a total installed open access based solar capacity of 334 MW. As much as 1,000 MW of new capacity is expected to be commissioned over February and March. Many large developers...
