India’s wind energy sector has been struggling so much that multiple developers, have quietly moved away almost exclusively to solar now, other than the odd Hybrid project that comes up.
An indicator of this trend is a recent case that came up at CERC (Central Electricity Regulatory Commission), where ReNew Wind Energy (TN) Private Limited (Renew) has pitched to prevent the encashment of its bank guarantees by SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India), for a wind power project that is still stuck in Tamil Nadu.
According to the petition, these have ranged from
- (i) delay in allocation of revenue land for the Project,
- (ii) delay in commissioning of transmission system,
- (iii) delay in adoption of tariff on the part of SECI, and
- (iv) outbreak of Covid-19, have delayed the Petitioner’s Project for more than 20 months and the said delays are continuing till date.
Accordingly, on 26.7.2020, Renew has terminated the PPA on account of these ‘force majeure’ events.
SECI has predictably denied the invocation of force majeure, and stuck to its line that the bank guarantee should be encashed as the project has missed the SCOD( Scheduled Commissioning Date) as per the PPA.
While this case is yet to reach a conclusion, it is no secret that the dice is loaded against the project itself progressing, not just because of the Corona pandemic right now, but also due to the changed situation on the ground.
Not only is Tamil Nadu against further wind capacity addition, Renew itself is probably having strong second thoughts on the low tariffs that were a key reason for the project win, back in 2018.
Reference- Economic Times, Mercom India, livemint
