India’s largest gas utility, GAIL India, has announced plans to participate in renewable energy auctions, marking its first foray towards competitive auctions.
![GAIL](https://www.cleanfuture.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/contact-img.jpg)
GAIL will bid for 400 megawatts of solar power capacity in a tender issued by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). The capacity would be spread across three projects planned to be commissioned in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
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In recent past the company has been aggressively looking for acquisitions and partnerships.
GAIL had submitted a bid worth US$640 million to acquire 873 megawatts of operational wind energy capacity from IL&FS Wind Energy Limited, a subsidiary of the troubled financial company Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited.
However, it lost out to Japan-based Orix, which already owned a minority stake in IL&FS Wind Energy.
There were also media reports in 2019 that it may partner with Exxon-Mobil to develop a renewable energy platform. There has been no update on the development since.
With the planned participation in the SECI solar power tender, GAIL will join other government-owned companies that have recently participated in renewable energy competitive auctions.
NTPC, Coal India and SJVN recently secured rights to develop solar power projects in state as well as national-level tenders.
Reference- GAIL PR, Economic Times, Business Standard, Orix website