Since the inception of reverse bidding in India’s wind sector back in February 2017, approximately 10 GW of wind power projects have been auctioned in the country.

The Minister for Power, Government of India, R. K. Singh stated in the Lok Sabha, “The wind power projects in the country are installed on the basis of commercial viability through tariff based competitive bidding process. As on date, the bids for setting up of wind power projects of aggregate 8.4 GW capacity have been finalized through the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). Bids of 500 MW each have been finalized by the states of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra.”

Singh also informed the Lok Sabha that the government has set a target of installing 60 GW of wind power capacity by 2022, against which 35 GW capacity has already been installed. The government is promoting wind power projects in entire country by providing various fiscal and financial incentives such as accelerated depreciation benefit; concessional custom duty exemption on certain components of wind electric generators. However, generation based incentive (GBI) to the wind projects were ended for projects commissioned after March 31, 2017.

According to Singh, “Technical support including wind resource assessment and identification of potential sites through the National Institute of Wind Energy, Chennai. To facilitate inter-state sale of wind power, the inter-state transmission charges and losses have been waived off for wind and solar projects to be commissioned by March 2022.

Singh also informed the members that the Ministry of Power has issued guidelines for tariff-based competitive bidding process for procurement of power from grid-connected wind projects. These guidelines aim to enable the distribution licensees/companies (DISCOMs) to procure wind power at competitive rates in a cost-effective manner.

Since the advent of auctions, wind power tariffs have taken a deep dive. As of now, the lowest ever wind tariff is even lower than the lowest ever solar tariff in India.

The lowest ever wind bid in India is ₹2.43 (~$0.038)/kWh that was quoted in the 500 MW Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd. (GUVNL) auction. While, the lowest solar tariff in India so far is  ₹2.44 (~$0.037)/kWh.

In August 2018, the first batch of interstate transmission system (ISTS)-connected wind energy projects were commissioned in India.