The government plans to hold auctions for wind power projects every month, ensuring, however, that this process does not push up tariff rates, Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.
Speaking at an event here for signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) under the first wind auction scheme of the government, Goyal said that wind energy auctions should be held every month.
He also said that the pace of this process needed to be calibrated bearing in mind the issue affordability of renewable energy for the common man.
"Our effort is to scale up all modes of energy so that pricing can be made more competitive and economies of scale come in," he said.
"But we will also have to calibrate it based on the pricing that we determine. We would not like that bids come out so frequently that pricing goes up. So it will be a calibrated move which we would be continuously monitoring," he added.
At the event, PPAs were signed for the purchase of 1050 MW of wind power between the trading company, PTC India Ltd, and the successful wind power project bidders.
According to an official statement here, projects under the first wind auction are likely to be commissioned by September 2018.
As per the PPAs, these projects would supply power through the inter-state transmission system at a tariff of Rs 3.46 per unit.
"PTC India has tied-up this wind power for sale to discoms of a number of states. Under this, Uttar Pradesh would get 449.9 MW, Bihar 200 MW, Jharkhand 200 MW, Delhi 100 MW, Assam 50 MW and Odisha 50 MW for meeting their non-solar Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPOs)," the statement said.
At the event, Goyal also said that it was time for the government to reconsider whether there was really a need to have separate RPOs for states.
"It is time we should have a relook at whether we really need to have separate RPOs anymore. We should let the states decide what is best in their interest, how they can serve their people," he said.
--IANS
bc/dg
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