NTPC Discovers Tariffs Below Rs 4.65 In 3 GW FDRE 2 Auctions

NTPC’s 3 GW FDRE (Firm and Dispatchable Renewable energy)  Tranche 2 auctions. Meant to supply round the clock power through the Inter State Transmission System (ISTS), the auctions were launched in October last year, and widely seen as a key milestone in plans to add storage capacity to the grid.  The prices discovered by NTPC are 17% less than those discovered in SECI’s 1.5 GW FDRE auction recently, where the lowest price discovered came in at Rs 5.59/unit.  NHPC’s received bid of Rs 4.55/unit  for its own 15 GW auction remains the lowest received for such FDRE auctions as of now.

Leading the bids in the NTPC auction is ABC Cleantech (Axis Energy), with a bid at Rs 4.64/unit (300 MW), followed by Juniper Green Energy(200 MW)  and Hero Energy(120 MW)  at Rs 4.69, Serentica Renewables (200 MW) , Tata Power (200 MW) at Rs 4.71, Brightnight Renewables(110 MW) and Renew Power (400)at Rs 4.72 each, and finally, Acme Cleantech at Rs 4.73/unit for 54 MW.

NTPC received bids for only 1980 MW out of the 3 GW on offer, and has finally allotted 1584, or 80% of the aggregate bid capacity.

The bid winners are expected to establish capacities on a build-own-operate basis. ReNew, which has won the largest tranche by volume, has the highest RTC development in the pipeline with this win now.

India needs some bold steps and an advanced BESS ecosystem with over 238 GWh of capacity. Experts at the 4th Edition of the International Conference on Stationary Energy Storage have stated this week. The country  has ramped up efforts to progress towards these targets, with pumped storage leading the push towards storage capacity for now. Battery storage for large scale requirements is expected to find more and more uses as prices drop further.