It has been a little over three months since renewable power trading commenced on Indian Energy Exchange. Trading has been active for solar and non-solar renewable power separately under two different contracts – intra-day, for delivery within 3.5 hours…
Indian Energy Exchange opened a new window for trading of renewable power this week. Solar and non-solar renewable power can be traded separately under four different contract types: intra-day, for delivery within 3.5 hours; day-ahead, for delivery next day; daily, for delivery between two to ten…
The Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) has repeatedly proposed to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to allow spot trading of renewable energy through a separate window on its platform. While CERC had disapproved the proposal for Green Day Ahead Market in 2017 citing lack of readiness of the renewable energy market, it has now directed
The Ministry of Power has proposed a number of progressive ideas for the electricity sector in the form of draft amendments to the National Electricity Act and National Tariff Policy. Proposed amendments include obligating DISCOMs to supply 24X7 power, a new penalty mechanism for non-compliance with renewable purchase obligations (RPOs), penalties for PPA violations, tariff
Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), India’s chief power sector regulator, recently issued a draft procedure for applying for connectivity to the inter-state transmission system (ISTS). The draft procedure comes in the wake of last year’s CERC order on transmission connectivity ‘squatting’ and seeks to provide much needed clarity for ISTS connectivity for RE projects. It is applicable to
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
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
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
Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL), Gujarat government holding company for power distribution and transmission businesses in the state, announced a new 500 MW solar tender last week. The tender has an innovative provision in the form of a 500 MW green-shoe option. If GUVNL deems the lowest auction tariff attractive, it can exercise an
In our last few bulletins, we have written extensively upon the recent challenges faced by the RE sector. Here, we take a look at what to expect in 2018. The year has obviously started on a shaky note with the 70% provisional duty recommendation on cell/module imports. The trade investigations are likely to drag on for a few months
Last week, we wrote a special bulletin about safeguard duty and its implications for various ongoing and under tender projects. The Director General of Safeguards’ recommendation for provisional duty of 70% has put the industry on tenterhooks. Investors, developers, contractors and manufacturers anxiously await final decision as they worry about navigating through an extended period of uncertainty…
Last few weeks have seen feverish activity in the RE sector with several bold announcements from the new MNRE leadership, keen to address the multiple complex issues facing the industry. After announcing a new RE rollout plan entailing tenders of 91 GW of new solar and wind projects by March 2020, MNRE has issued a new concept note on
As the year 2017 comes to an end, we take stock of the progress made by the Indian renewable energy sector. It was an eventful year, during which annual capacity addition is estimated to touch record levels of 10.9 GW (+66% over 2016) including utility scale solar (9 GW, +110%), rooftop solar (887 MW, +60%)
In our last weekly update, we discussed the state of domestic manufacturing and Indian government’s efforts to improve prospects of the sector after the domestic content requirement mechanism was challenged successfully by the USA at the World Trade Organization (WTO) (refer). Recent reports suggest that the government is planning to offer incentives directly to domestic
As part of the memorandum of understanding signed under the UDAY scheme, the Ministry of Power has allowed a roll forward of the Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) for Uttar Pradesh by seven years (refer). Meanwhile, state power distribution companies in Odisha have got a stay on enforcement of RPO from the state High Court. These
Last week, Jharkhand, one of India’s largest coal producing states and governed by BJP, announced a new tender for 1,200 MW of solar capacity allocation under its state policy (refer). This is the first such tender for the state. Projects under this tender are expected to be allocated under two categories: 200 MW for projects
Telangana successfully completed auction for 2,000 MW of grid connected, ground mounted solar projects in India in August 2015 and PPAs were expected to be signed by October 2015 (refer). However, there has been a considerable delay in signing these PPAs. The process appears to be stuck at senior levels in the state government purportedly
Earlier this month, India’s minister for new and renewable energy, Piyush Goyal, announced that the country’s rooftop solar policy is now ready to be placed before the union cabinet (refer). This policy is expected to lay out yearly targets to reach 40 GW of rooftop solar capacity and provide comprehensive details of operational and fiscal
The Indian Parliament recently concluded a literally washed out monsoon session. The key Amendments for Electricity Act 2003, which the Parliamentary Standing Committee had already recommended was ready but not tabled (refer here to read why this matters for the solar sector). Another important proposal to amend the National Tariff Policy 2005 has been severely
On Sunday, 5th June 2015, one of India’s leading economic journalists, Swaminathan Aiyar, in his weekly column “Swaminomics”, wrote that India should wait for five years before trying to implement big plans for solar (refer). He argues that solar is still a comparatively expensive energy generation technology and that because India is an evening peak country,
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China last week, 3 MoUs were signed, potentially worth USD 260 million (refer) for solar cell and module manufacturing units. Trina Solar and JA Solar have signed MoUs with Welspun Energy and Essel Solar respectively to set up manufacturing facilities in Andhra Pradesh. Canadian Solar also signed an
On Thursday last week (19th March 2015), the Ministry for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) called for a meeting to discuss how to best scale up rooftop installations in India to 40 GW (cumulative) by 2022 (refer). It was chaired by Upendra Tripathi, Secretary MNRE, and Tarun Kapoor, Joint Secretary MNRE, and was attended by approx.
In a US-India joint statement released yesterday (26th January 2015), the US reiterated its intent to support India’s proposed targets on clean energy and climate change. The statement includes seven measures: expanding Partnership to Advance Clean Energy Research (PACE-R), expanding Partnership to Advance Clean Energy Deployment (PACE-D), accelerating clean energy finance, launching air quality…
Ever since the new government was sworn in, India has been making all the right noises about its ambitions for solar power. Both Prime Minister Modi, and the Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Mr. Goyal, seem determined to achieve an ambitious target of 100 GW by 2020. After the headline items have been absorbed
The Indian solar market went through its share of ups and downs in 2014. Last week, we tried to summarize key events of the year and their impact on the market (refer). In this newsletter, we applaud key stakeholders and initiatives that, in our opinion, were standout contributors to the growth of the Indian solar market
As 2014 draws to a close, it is useful to look back and summarize how the Indian solar market as shaped up over the past one year. The mood of the Indian solar market in 2014 can broadly be divided into two distinct halves; pre 22nd August and post 22nd August. No, 22nd August was
Last week, we discussed the proposed changes in the Electricity Act 2003 and, in particular, the proposed 10.5% solar RPO target (refer link 1 and link 2). To give the market further impetus, in the past few days, the government has announced fund allocation for solar parks infrastructure, viability gap funding for public sector led projects and new
The Indian government is planning to amend the Electricity Act 2003 in a fundamental power sector reform. The goal is to break the monopoly of power distribution companies on the end consumer and allow for more effective competition in the last-mile delivery and sale of power (refer).The proposed amendment of the Electricity Act would have an
India’s new government has been very bullish on growing solar. Plans are underway to revise the National Solar Mission (NSM) target to 100 GW by 2022. There is a lively debate in the industry about the achievability of the targets and about the best ways to reach them. Now, it transpired that the Ministry of
Last week, speaking at a UNEP and FICCI conference on ‘Designing a sustainable financial system for India’, the Minister for Coal, Power and Renewable Energy, Shri. Piyush Goyal reiterated the government’s plan to achieve 100 GW of solar by 2022. This is a very ambitious goal – to say the least. Is it feasible? The
Over the past few weeks, India’s minister for power, coal and renewables, Mr. Piyush Goyal has publicly stated on several occasions that he envisions India to have 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022. This is very ambitious. For this target to be achieved, India would soon have to start ramping up solar capacity at
The Indian government clearly understands the impact and importance of low cost finance for the solar sector in the country and has taken up efforts to woo international institutional capital to the sector. Latest step in this direction is a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between US-EXIM and IREDA for a financing support of up to
Uttarakhand has opened the financial bid for a 30 MW tender which was floated in August’14. Despite the projects lacking scale advantage, Redwood projects has quoted a highly aggressive bid of INR 6.85/kWh for a 1 MW project. This bid is the lowest and is INR 0.71/kWh below the next bid. Overall, the median winning
Last week, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) announced revised subsidy benchmarks for various off-grid and decentralized solar applications (refer). The subsidy amounts have been fixed in absolute Rupee terms instead of as percentage of capital cost. BRIDGE TO INDIA welcomes this change as it brings more transparency into the process.Revised subsidy benchmarks
Since the 1950’s, the world has witnessed (and recorded) global warming at an unprecedented speed. This radical change in the climatic system has been attributed to massive emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, due to industrialization and related, modern lifestyles. While there have been debates in the past over the reality and validity of
Over the past few weeks, we have been discussing the various positive and ambitious announcements of the new Indian government on the solar sector (refer blog 1, blog 2 and blog 3). Now, the government has started announcing broader coal and power sector reforms in the country. It is clear that power sector is top priority for the new government
Several new announcements at the central and state level are creating a lot of excitement in the Indian solar market (read the October 2014 edition of the India Solar Compass). Last week, Rajasthan notified that it is looking to revamp its solar policy to achieve 25 GW of solar capacity in five years (refer). The proposed policy aims
Following the U.N. climate week, India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is meeting US President Barack Obama on the 29th and 30th September 2014. According to reports (refer), one of the items on the agenda is to form a ‘working group’ that would plan the roll out of 100 GW of solar in India over the next ten years.
Around this time last year, after a lot of mid-course process changes, quick fixes and haggling, Tamil Nadu’s power generation company TANGEDCO (acting as a process manager) signed power purchase agreements for 708 MW. They had a “workable” tariff of INR 6.48/kWh and a 5% escalation (equivalent to around INR 8.3/kWh on a levelized basis).
The new government in India is considering revamping the country’s flagship National Solar Mission (NSM) and making it considerably more ambitious. The recently announced draft scheme for solar parks (refer) is only a part of this development. Next, we can expect an announcement to cancel the planned allocation of 1,500 MW. In its place, we expect a new,
The newly created south Indian state of Telangana, which was carved out of the state of Andhra Pradesh, has announced a 500 MW solar PV tender (refer). This comes within a month of the now smaller, remaining part of Andhra Pradesh announcing its own 500 MW tender (refer). While the Andhra Pradesh tender is based
In a major relief to the solar sector, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has not acted upon the recommendations made by the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) for imposing anti-dumping duties on import of solar cells and modules. No official communiqué has been issued by the MoF yet but the deadline of 22nd August 2014 for acting upon
After a long delay, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has finally received a budgetary allocation to go ahead with sanction of 30% capital subsidy for a 25 MW rooftop solar capacity under the Central Financial Assistance (CFA) scheme (refer). This allocation has been deferred for a considerable time period, leading to adverse
Mr. Tarun Kapoor, Joint Secretary for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) announced at a conference last week that India might look at following Germany’s lead by going ahead with fixed Feed-in Tariffs (FiT) as opposed to the current system of reverse auctions. The government is considering this in order to rapidly expand India’s
Last week, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) released a draft document outlining allocation process for another 1,500 MW of solar PV capacity under phase two of India’s National Solar Mission (NSM) (refer).Allocations will be made to bidders on the basis of the highest discount they offer on a benchmark tariff.The new allocations
In the budget, presented last week, the new government took further measures to support solar manufacturing by eliminating the ‘inverted duty’ structure. ‘Inverted duty’ meant that while there was an import duty exemption on finished solar modules, there was no similar exemption on raw materials and components used in module assembly, thus putting Indian manufacturers
The new budget for 2014-15 will be the first of the recently elected government in India. The expectations are high, but the finance minister has to walk a tightrope to ensure fiscal prudence in an economy that has been handed over to him in a bad shape.BRIDGE TO INDIA expects the government to increase the
Is the Indian solar market finally going to live up to its huge promise? I have hopes that it will. The new government has made all the right “noises”. It wants to embed solar firmly within a larger energy strategy for the country. The new Power Minister, Piyush Goyal, wants to take his cue from
The Indian stock market as a whole has been on a bull run ever since the new government has come into power. However, one group that has done exceptionally well is the solar cell manufacturers, whose valuations had been very low before. The stock price of the three independently listed cell manufacturers has risen sharply:
In a recent statement, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), has said that it proposes to allow tax incentives for households who wish to set up rooftop solar plants and the proposal is to be discussed with the Ministry of Finance (refer).As of now, individuals and or households do not get any tax benefits
