Adani Green Energy emerged as the lowest (L1) bidder in the auction conducted by the Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. (SECI) for 1,200 MW of ISTS-connected solar-wind hybrid power projects under Tranche-II.

Adani Green Energy quoted a tariff of ₹2.69 (~$0.0387)/kWh to set up 600 MW of solar-wind hybrid projects.

When contacted, a SECI official confirmed the culmination of the tranche-II hybrid projects auction. According to the SECI official, “Adani Green Energy was the L1 bidder after it quoted ₹2.69 (~$0.03822)/kWh to set up 600 MW.”

“ReNew Power quoted ₹2.70 (~$0.0389/kWh)/kWh to set up 300 MW, but will be awarded 120 MW,” added the SECI official.

SECI had issued the tender for setting up 1,200 MW of solar-wind hybrid power projects under tranche-II in February 2019. SECI had fixed ₹2.70 (~$0.038/kWh) as the ceiling tariff for this tender.

Later, Mercom reported that the tender had been undersubscribed by 300 MW as bidders stayed away from the tender because of the aggressive tariff cap.

As a result, 80% of the capacity that has been bid for will be awarded. In this case, it is 720 MW.

Even the first solar-wind hybrid tender and its subsequent auction couldn’t manage to gather much interest from bidders due to the tariff cap put by SECI.

In December 2018, in the first mega solar-wind hybrid auction conducted in the country, SB Energy emerged as the L1 bidder by quoting a tariff of ₹2.67 (~$0.03794)/kWh. For this tender, the ceiling tariff had been set at ₹2.70 (~$0.038/kWh). SECI had initially tendered 2,500 MW of ISTS-connected wind-solar hybrid power projects (tranche-I). Later, the capacity of ISTS-connected wind-solar hybrid power project was reduced to 1,200 MW. Since the tender was undersubscribed by 150 MW, SECI auctioned only 80 percent of the bid capacity (1,050 MW), which is 840 MW.

The L1 tariff quoted in this hybrid auction is ₹0.02 (~$0.0002)/kWh more than the L1 tariff of ₹2.67 (~$0.03794)/kWh quoted in the first hybrid solar-wind auction conducted by SECI.

A market source informed Mercom, “The implementing agency must lower the tariff caps, else it won’t be until the next few years that hybrid projects catch the imagination of investors and developers as solar has done. It requires money, technology and effort to marry the two technologies; you cannot just arrive at an average rate equivalent to the average tariff of respective sources and fix it as the tariff cap. Else, the result will be as has already been in the two hybrid auctions; only large companies will participate”.

“A case in point is that Adani Green Energy, one of the largest private power firms in India has won big in both the hybrid auctions, but at a very aggressive tariff. That is also the reason they haven’t budged in both the hybrid auctions; the tariff they quoted in both auctions is same,” added the source.