2022’s First Big Tender Is SECI’s 1200 MW Tranche XIII Wind Tender

In its first big tender for 2022, the Solar energy Corporation of India (SECI) has gone with wind, inviting bids to develop 1,200 MW of interstate transmission system (ISTS)-connected wind power projects (Tranche XIII). The tender leaves the onus of identifying and arranging land on the bidders, a factor that has caused immense delays in many of the previous wind energy tranches. In 2021, Solar overtook wind in terms of capacity in India, even as overall generation remained higher from wind energy during the year. Even that might change this year.

While the last date to submit bids is February 18, 2022, a pre-bid meeting has been scheduled on January 21, in a virtual format.

The scope of work for this tender includes identifying land, installation, and ownership of the project, obtaining connectivity, long-term access, and necessary approval and interconnection with the ISTS network to supply power to SECI.

Bidders will need to bid for a minimum of 50 MW capacity, even as a single bid upto 1200 MW has also been allowed. Between those two numbers, bids have to be in multiples of 10 MW.

Bidders’ will need to demonstrate a net worth Of Rs 1.32 crore/MW of the quoted capacity as of the last date of the previous financial year. The minimum annual turnover of bidders needs to be at least Rs 51.8 lakh/MW of the quoted capacity

The minimum declared annual capacity utilization factor (CUF) must be  22% or more, even as turbines used in the project must be sourced from the Revised List of Wind Turbine Models and Manufacturers (RLMM).

Pure play wind projects are expected to be rarity going forward, as Hybrid projects with solar take centre stage. The last results for SECI ‘s Tranche XI tender had attracted winning bids at Rs 2.69/kWh (Renew Power) . Market experts expect the same range to be maintained for the subsequent tenders too, including the current one, or even a little higher.

With the government signaling a strong commitment to domestic manufacturing in both solar and wind by extension, including the start of customs duty from April 1 on Solar imports, it does appear that tolerance for a certain amount of price hikes has been discovered, which should help keep Wind Energy competitive vis a vis solar. It’s higher CUF usually means that wind energy can be more competitive than just a mere comparison of bids vis a vis solar. The challenge in recent years has been the scurry for good sites, which can make or break a project.