Gujarat rolls out wind power policy

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government on Friday announced the new Wind Power Policy, making it more attractive for private players to enter the sector. The 5-year policy, which will come into effect from June 20, entails higher remuneration as well as third-party sale.
This means companies entering the sector can now sell power to any entity and earn higher prices. As per the existing policy, wind power plants were allowed to sell power only to Gujarat Electricity Board. Also, earlier manufacturing units were supposed to use wind power for captive consumption only.

The existing policy expires on June 19. The wind power sector, which has been aggressively promoted by the state government, has seen major action in the past five years. The state’s installed capacity grew four-fold to 455MW by 2007 during the past five years. It is likely to cross the 600MW-mark by October 2007.

While the existing policy allows only the captive users to set up wind power plants, the new policy has made some path-breaking changes such as allowing private companies to set up plants to sell power to any entity of their choice.

The government has also revised tariffs, up from the earlier Rs 2.60 per unit to Rs 3.37 per unit. Companies setting up the plant can enter into an agreement for a period of 20 years. The policy also grants freedom to players to switch from captive consumption to commercial usage.