Winds of change knock India’s power sector

The recent assessment indicates a gross wind power potential of 302 GW in the country at 100 metres and 695.50 GW at 120 metres above ground level

India’s wind energy sector is led by indigenous wind power industry and has shown consistent progress. The expansion of the wind industry has resulted in a strong ecosystem, project operation capabilities and manufacturing base of about 10,000 MW per annum.

The country currently has the fourth highest wind installed capacity in the world with a total installed capacity of 40.4 GW as of March 2022. The government is promoting wind power projects in the entire country through private sector investment by providing various fiscal and financial incentives such as Accelerated Depreciation benefit, concessional custom duty exemption on certain components of wind electric generators. Besides, Generation Based Incentive (GBI) Scheme was available for the wind projects commissioned before 31 March 2017.

In addition to fiscal and other incentives, more steps were taken to promote installation of wind capacity in the country. This includes technical support including wind resource assessment and identification of potential sites through the National Institute of Wind Energy, Chennai. To facilitate inter-state sale of wind power, the inter-state transmission charges and losses were waived off for wind and solar projects to be commissioned by March 2022.

Guidelines were issued for Tariff Based Competitive Bidding Process for Procurement of Power from Grid Connected Wind Power Projects with an objective to provide a framework for procurement of wind power through a transparent process of bidding including standardization of the process and defining of roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders. These guidelines aim to enable the Distribution Licensees to procure wind power at competitive rates in a cost-effective manner.

Wind is an intermittent and site-specific resource of energy and therefore, an extensive Wind Resource Assessment is essential for the selection of potential sites. The government, through National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE), has installed over 800 wind-monitoring stations all over the country and issued wind potential maps at 50m, 80m, 100m and 120m above ground level. The recent assessment indicates a gross wind power potential of 302 GW in the country at 100 meter and 695.50 GW at 120 meter above ground level.

India added 275 MW wind power capacity in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022, a 30 per cent quarter-over-quarter increase compared to 212 MW installed in Q4 2021, bringing the cumulative wind installations in the country to 40.4 GW, according to government data.

Gujarat led the way with nearly 202 MW of wind capacity added in Q1 2022. The state makes up 23 per cent of the cumulative capacity with 9.2 GW of installations. Karnataka added 54 MW of capacity in the quarter and was ranked third with 5.1 GW of wind installations accounting for 13 per cent of the total market share.