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India commissions first wind project connected to inter-state transmission system

New Delhi: The government today announced the country’s first wind power project connected to the Inter-State Transmission System was commissioned today by Ostro Kutch Wind Private Ltd in Gujarat.

State-owned Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) had conducted the first auction of wind power projects in February last year in which tariff of Rs 3.46 was discovered, much lower than the feed-in tariffs in vogue at the time.

Companies placed bids for 1,000 MW capacity of projects to be connected on ISTS where power generated in one resource-rich state could be transmitted to other renewable deficient states. Five firms including Mytrah, Inox, Ostro, Green Infra and Adani won the bids.

“As a part of this bid, Ostro Kutch Wind Private Ltd was issued letter of award on 5 April 2017 for 250 MW, with commissioning period of 18 months. A part capacity of 126 Mw, located in Bhuj (Gujarat) was commissioned by Ostro on 24 August 2018 ahead of schedule,” the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) said in a statement.

The energy generated from this project is being purchased by Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and UP.

According to the official statement, the first auction also signified a major shift from the earlier regime of state-specific feed-in-Tariff (FiT) model to a Pan-India, market-driven mechanism. “This 126 MW ISTS project marks the beginning of capacity additions in wind power based on market discovered tariffs, in line with the government’s plan of 175 Gigawatt renewable energy by 2022,” the statement read.

Beginning with this tender, SECI has brought out five tenders for wind power projects of cumulative capacity of 7,250 Mw, of which 6,050 Mw capacity has been awarded. Apart from SECI and NTPC, state agencies of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat have also brought out bids and awarded projects based on tendering.