India to hold a wind power auction worth 1 GW in October 2017

Some developers are worried over transmission issues.

The Indian government has decided to postpone the 2017 second 1GW wind power auction from 19 September 2017 to 4 October 2017 because of some issues regarding transmission connectivity between Indian states.

According to Enerdata, some developers and bidders are grappling with the issue of inter state transmission connectivity and the government is waiting for a Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) clarification on inter state power transmission connectivity.

Enerdata said that the issue came up after the Indian central transmission utility, Power Grid Corp, filed a case for preventing underutilisation of bays for connectivity granted to wind generation projects. One of of the current conditions in the bid is to have connectivity with Inter State Transmission System (ISTS). Another condition in this 1000 MW tender is the allowance of a single bid of maximum 250 MW only from a given bidder.

"The tender will be conducted by the state-run company Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), which already conducted the February 2017 auction. It was worth 1 GW and saw wind power tariffs in India hit a record low of Rup3.46/kWh (US$5c/kWh)," Enerdata said.

This story was originally published by Enerdata.