Reverse Bidding to Continue in Renewable Energy Sector, says R K Singh

“We will accept bids which are reasonable. If we come across bids which we consider to be excessive, we will cancel them,” the Minister said.

The Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh said that the government will not accept any unreasonable bids for renewables like solar and wind and continue to conduct auctions through reverse bidding as it is transparent.

“We will accept bids which are reasonable. If we come across bids which we consider to be excessive, we will cancel them,” the Minister said at a curtain raiser press conference of 2nd Global RE-INVEST in New Delhi.

Also, this statement gains importance as the renewable energy ministry planned to auction 61 GW capacity of renewables in 2018-19 and 56 GW capacity in 2019-20.

Further, on close bidding for the sector, Singh said, “We had commissioned a study. They have said the reverse bidding system would be totally transparent and good for the sector.”

On the other hand about allegation of cartelisation against an MNC which was accused for jacking up price of solar power tariff, Renewable Energy Secretary Anand Kumar said there is no such allegation. “We found certain bids to be unacceptable and we did not accept them because their prices were higher.”

While on reducing import dependence of solar equipment in the country, Singh said that India has manufacturing capacity of 3 GW for solar cells and 9 GW for modules.

The Minister further added that, “This is not sufficient for us. In order to establish manufacturing capacity here, we had floated an Expression of Interest for 10 GW. Under this, bidder can bid for setting up a capacity of 600 MW with 200 MW manufacturing capacity. Under this, 10GW would be generation capacity and 3GW manufacturing capacity.”

Source: PTI