Suzlon Group’s Chairman and Managing Director Tulsi Tanti wants the Maharashtra government to take a re-look at the energy policy to give wind energy in the State a much-needed thrust.

He has also urged the government to encourage small and medium enterprises to set up captive wind power projects that will enable them to hedge energy costs and also give an impetus to the Make in India initiative.

“We (Maharashtra) have huge energy deficit, but unfortunately, we are not growing very well in the renewable energy space. They have come out with a policy and tariff, but the government is not interested in signing power purchase agreements (PPA) and power companies are free to invest and sell to other states,” Tanti said, urging the government to have a “re-look at this.”

Wind energy share He was referring to the Maharashtra Renewable Energy policy that was formulated last July but has not resulted in any new power purchase agreements being signed by the State. This is expected to push down Maharashtra’s share in wind energy from 17.3 per cent today to 12 per cent by 2022.

“We are the largest company sitting in Maharashtra. We have manufacturing base but there is no business here while we are growing in other States,” Tanti rued.

Making a case for encouraging SMEs to set up captive wind power projects, he said, “If we want the Make in India strategy to be successful, we have to support small and medium businesses. They can invest in wind power projects and hedge power cost for 25 years which will help their business be competitive.”

TN textile companies Pointing out that this will help enterprises that are labour and power intensive, Tanti said the model had been very successful for 4,000 textile companies in Tamil Nadu who were growing very well and also exporting and were paying less than ₹4 per unit for power.

Tanti also cited the example of Bajaj Auto which had invested in wind mills ten years ago and now could get power at a price of 50 to 60 paise per unit.

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