The wind industry has welcomed the launch of the second round of auction of wind power capacity for 1,000 MW, but has unequivocally said “not enough”.
Ramesh Kymal, Chairman and Managing Director of Gamesa India, the country’s biggest wind turbine company, wants 3,000 MW of capacity auctioned now and another 3,000 MW by October, and another 3,000 MW in the last quarter of the year. “Only then will the market momentum achieved last year be maintained,” Kymal told BusinessLine .
He observed that not all of the capacity auctioned will be implemented in the current year, which means there will be some visibility for the next year too.
Madhusudhan Khemka, Chairman and Managing Director, RegenPowertech, another manufacturer of wind turbines, holds a similar view.
“Since feed-in tariff based projects in any state look a remote possibility, it is important to have at least 5,000 MW of bidding at the earliest, or else the momentum gained in the last financial year will be lost,” Khemka told BusinessLine today. (Feed-in tariffs, or FiTs, are the fixed tariff determined by the electricity regulatory commissions at which the energy companies sell electricity to distribution companies, who supply power to consumers.)
“Real execution of projects under bidding will start only next year and the country cannot afford to waste one year waiting for that to happen,” Khemka said.
He, however, wants the feed-in tariff to continue in select states, till the states start their own rounds of bidding.
Prasanth Vittal, CEO of Nordex, a Germany-headquartered wind turbine manufacturer, which began producing the machines near Chennai last June, also said he would like to see more capacity auctioned, but preferred a “step-by-step approach”.
Vittal also wants the government to do auctions state-wise because each state has a different wind regime — a view that has been expressed by Tulsi Tanti, Chairman and Managing Director, Suzlon Energy earlier.