Lowest Tariff Of Rs. 2.84/kWh Discovered In GUVNL 500 MW Wind Auction

In Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam’s (GUVNL) auction to buy power from 500 MW of grid-connected wind power projects, Rajpur Renewables, Juniper Green Energy, Solarcraft Power India 3, O2 POwer, TEQ Green Power XII, ACME Pokhran Solar, and Project Twelve Renewable Power were proclaimed winners (Phase-III).

The greenshoe option for the tender had an additional capacity of up to 500 MW. 

• GSECL won 70 MW at a tariff of X 2.84/kWh
• EDF Renewables won 30 MW at X 2.98 /kWh.
• Juniper Green Energy won 40 MW at X 3.04 /kWh.
• Blupine Energy won 100 MW at X 3.05 /kWh. 
• O2 Power won 70 MW by quoting X 3.17/kWh.
• ACME Pokhran Solar won 50 MW for X 3.26/kWh. 
• Ayana won 140 MW capacity of the bid capacity of 200 MW by quoting X 3.27/kWh. 

Power purchase agreements (PPAs) will be made between GUVNL and the chosen bidders for 25 years beginning with the project’s anticipated date of a commercial operation or its full commissioning, whichever comes first.

For these projects, only models of certified wind turbines on the Revised List of Models and Manufacturers (RLMM) created by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) will be accepted.

To transmit energy to the Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation (GETCO) peripheral, the projects should be planned for interconnection with the state transmission utility or the central transmission utility through a dedicated transmission line.

At the time of signing the PPA, the successful bidders must disclose the yearly capacity utilisation factor (CUF) of the project, which may be changed once during the first three years. The declared yearly CUF should not be less than 22%. Throughout the PPA’s 25-year life, the successful bidders must sustain generation to achieve yearly CUF within +20 and -20 percent of the declared CUF.

The winning bidder will be required to pay GUVNL compensation at a rate equal to 50% of the tariff if it is discovered that they were unable to provide the required amount of energy for any given year following the allowable lower limit of annual CUF they had indicated.

In comparison to the lowest wind tariff to date, which was 2.43/kWh identified in GUVNL’s wind auction in December 2017, the lowest cost of X 2.84/kWh revealed in this auction is higher by about 17%. For wind developers who are struggling on several fronts, the tariff hike is encouraging.