The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has released draft amendments to the procedure for including wind turbine models in the Revised List of Models and Manufacturers (RLMM).

The Ministry has requested all stakeholders to provide comments or suggestions within three weeks.

Manufacturers must disclose the turbine’s blade, tower, gearbox, and generator source. They must also share their tower type, rate power, technical collaboration details, type certification, and IS/ISO certification.

They must also provide a certificate for their wind turbine model type, disclosing the blade, tower, gearbox, and details on the generator manufacturing facilities in India. These components must be sourced exclusively from such facilities.

Imports of components for 50 wind turbines or those with 200 MW capacity, whichever is less, by any new wind turbine manufacturer will be exempted from restrictions.

The following steps must be ensured to strengthen the cybersecurity ecosystem:

• Data centers and servers must be in India, and all information regarding wind turbines must be stored and maintained within the country
• Transferring real-time operational data outside India must be prohibited, and operational control of the wind turbines must be conducted exclusively from an Indian facility.
• A research and development center must be established in India within six months of this memorandum’s issuance

All other conditions/procedures for including wind turbines in RLMM remain unchanged.

Recently, MNRE issued revised draft guidelines setting the validity of the three-year prototype certificate for wind turbines. The draft guidelines include a framework for installing prototype wind turbine models. They state that regular maintenance and servicing must be carried out for the prototype wind turbines installed.

Last year, MNRE amended the micro-siting onshore wind power criteria to focus on optimized output rather than the minimum distance between turbines.

India added 706.5 MW of wind energy capacity in the third quarter (Q3) of 2024, a 72% increase year-over-year from 411.5 MW in Q3 2023, according to Mercom India Research.

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