Blogs
Spike in spot power prices likely to be temporary
18 September 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Average clearing price for power on the energy exchange has been inching up from INR 2.61/kWh seen on 2rd September 2017 and spiked up to a high of INR 9.91/kWh last week. Current prices are in the range of INR 5.00 – 6.20/ kWh range. These high prices are in stark contrast to the past two years, when power was selling at near a ten-year low of INR 2.20-3.80/kWh. Exchange prices are...
Forecasting and scheduling regulations take hold in India
11 September 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Andhra Pradesh recently became the latest state to notify forecasting, scheduling and deviation settlement regulations for solar and wind power generation. It joins Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, who have already announced these regulations. Six...
What is expected of India’s new power minister?
04 September 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
In a major cabinet reshuffle yesterday, India’s erstwhile Minister of Power and Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal, demitted office to become the new Minister of Railways. R.K. Singh, an erstwhile bureaucrat and now a Member of Parliament, has been appointed as the new minister. During the 40 months of his...
Is there a case for solar InvITs?
30 August 2017 | Vinay Rustagi
InvITs are infrastructure investment trusts set up pursuant to SEBI Regulations 2014 for investment in infrastructure projects. Money raised from InvITs is used to repay external debt and buy back equity investments in underlying project companies. Recently, IRB and Sterlite power successfully launched the first two InvITs for road and power transmission projects by raising INR 50.3 Bn (USD 775...
Indian developers caught between a rock and a hard place
28 August 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Indian solar developers typically factor in a 15-20% annualised fall in the cost of solar modules when bidding for new projects. The assumed price decline may have been even higher in some of the recent auctions. Price increases in the last 2-3 months, therefore, have come as a shock to the sector. Against an expectation of USD 0.28/Wp, prices for the current quarter are being quoted at about...
New guidelines for solar power procurement to bring confidence to the sector
24 August 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
The Ministry of Power has issued new “Guidelines for tariff based competitive bidding process” for solar power plants. The guidelines shall be applicable to all projects equal to or greater than 5 MW for supplying power directly/ indirectly to DISCOMs subject to approval from the respective central or state regulator. For the first time in the sector, the government also proposes to issue...
The Economic Survey’s bizarre logic – social cost of renewables is 3 times that for coal
21 August 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
India’s Ministry of Finance has released a mid-year macro-economic assessment of the country in the form of second volume of the Economic Survey 2016-17. The Survey reflects work of various government departments and provides valuable guidance to future policy making. The chapter on climate change and energy reiterates recent Central Electricity Authority (CEA) projections – capacity...
India to add 9.4 GW of solar capacity in 2017
14 August 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
We have released our latest report – India Solar Compass – a quarterly update on the Indian solar market. The report contains key information and analysis including tender and project...
Draft National Energy Policy lacking in both vision and substance
10 August 2017 | Surbhi Singhvi
NITI Aayog, India’s central planning agency, recently released the draft National Energy Policy (NEP). The document sets out national objectives and planning framework for the energy sector for the next 23 years (up to 2040). It comes at an opportune time when India is going through a critical energy transition period. Its main thrust is to let market-based mechanisms guide growth in various...
Greenko and Azure close record green bond issues
31 July 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Greenko and Azure Power have together raised USD 1.5 billion from sales of green bonds in the last two weeks. Other offshore green bond issuances by ReNew Power, NTPC, Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), IDBI Bank, Axis Bank, Yes Bank and L&T Infrastructure Finance mean that India is amongst the top ten green bond markets in the world with a cumulative issuance of over USD 4 billion. In...
India initiates another anti-dumping investigation on solar cells and modules
25 July 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
India has initiated a new investigation to probe dumping of solar cells and modules from China, Taiwan and Malaysia. The petition for this investigation was submitted by Indian Solar Manufacturers Association (ISMA) on behalf of Indosolar, Websol and Jupiter Solar. The...
Indian rooftop solar market growing at over 80% annually
18 July 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
BRIDGE TO INDIA has released its latest edition of the India Solar Rooftop Map report. As per the report, India added 678 MW of rooftop solar capacity in FY 2016-17, growing at 81% Y-o-Y. Total installed rooftop solar capacity reached 1.4 GW as of March 2017. Strong market fundamentals including...
