Wind power companies want government push for utilities to go green, Stress on RPO targets

The wind power industry has suggested the government push utilities to procure renewable power, enable enforcement of amendment in the Energy Conservation Act for renewable purchase obligation (RPO) targets, and an extension of waiver of inter-state transmission system (ISTS) charges for all renewable energy, except offshore wind till 2030.

In a recent presentation to the ministry of new and renewable energy, the Wind Independent Power Producers Association shared that more than 30 GW of letters of award for projects tendered await signing power purchase agreements, ET has learnt. The industry body raised its concerns of the non-compliance of some states towards their RPO trajectory.



"A significant increase in the RE [renewable energy] tenders from 15-20 GW in FY23 to 70 GW in FY24 is a welcome step, but to meet the 500 GW target by FY30, we need to convert the successful bids into PPAs [power purchase agreements]," the association said.

The wind power industry has picked up pace in the last few years but needs to be accelerated to reach the aim of 110 GW by 2030. The cumulative wind power installed capacity in India is 47.7 GW.

Wind power capacity addition has reached 3,253 MW in FY24 rising from 1,110 MW in FY22.


Another major challenge for the renewable energy sector has been the required transmission lines.

It takes over 2.5 years to complete a transmission line because of commissioning delays compared with 1.5 years of execution time for renewable energy projects.

The association, in its representation, said that though the Indian electricity grid has delivered in the past, a more aggressive approach is required to keep pace with the rapidly growing renewable energy.

It suggested substation-based bidding, frequent review of renewable energy development against substation planning.