More renewable capacity to be tendered in India despite multiple deadline extensions

This article is part of a daily series of IPP articles. If you want to know more about the latest power generation projects globally visit our IPP Today section. You can receive them by email on a daily basis.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has published a Request for Selection (RfS) for 2 GW wind projects. Developers are invited to submit projects with between 50 and 300 MW capacity to be delivered on build-own-operate (BOO) bases. SECI will sign 25-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) with selected proponents.

Furthermore, the national government has granted planning permission to a 5 GW solar project in Gujarat, a state in the west of the country, paving the way for the first 1 GW tender. Once completed, the project will be the largest solar farm in India, stretching over 11,000 hectares.

However, these advances coincide with repeated failures to attract bids in other renewable tenders.

The deadline for the country's inaugural offshore wind project, also to be located in Gujarat, has been extended to 8 June. The National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) is hoping to install 1 GW in the Gulf of Khambhat. Despite the promise of a 25-year PPA, NIWE has clearly struggled to attract interest, as it has also lowered some of the eligibility requirements.

Furthermore, a tender for 200 MW solar projects in Madhya Pradesh, located in central India, has been postponed indefinitely. It was launched by SECI, on behalf of Coal India, in October 2017, envisaging the installation of two 100 MW photovoltaic power plants within the Neemuch-Mandsaur solar park.

ECI has also extended the deadline for the selection of developers for a planned 150 MW floating solar photovoltaic facility on the Rihand Dam, also known as the Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar Reservoir, in the Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, in the north of India. The authority are seeking to allocate the capacity in three 50 MW blocks.

Slightly earlier this month, a 500 MW wind tender in Gujarat was also extended. This is the fourth time that Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL), the authority conducting the tender, have altered the submission deadline since publishing the RfS in February.

This indicates serious issues facing both solar and wind developers across the country, or that governments and authorities are overestimating the demand for PPAs for renewable projects. Perhaps the vast amount of capacity that has already been tendered in India this year is causing fatigue amongst developers.

Nevertheless, all of these tenders are part of the government's drive to install 175 GW of new renewable energy capacity by 2022. With such an ambitious target, it is unlikely that the apparent lack of demand will prevent the launching of more tenders as the year progresses.