India completed its seventh national-level wind energy auction despite less that impressive participation from project developers. The Solar Energy Corporation of India awarded just 40% of the initially offered capacity in this auction.
SECI had floated the seventh tender for a national-level wind energy auction earlier this year. As we covered last month, the tender was undersubscribed by 50%. Only four project developers submitted bids to develop 600 megawatts of capacity compared to the initially offered capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. 
Adani Green Energy (250 megawatts), ENGIE (200 megawatts), Sprng Energy (100 megawatts), and ReNew Power (50 megawatts) had placed bids for the tender. Project developers are believed to have stayed away from the tender due to higher threshold tariff mandated by SECI and the lack of transmission infrastructure to support new projects.
Due to undersubscription of the tender, SECI decided to auction just 480 megawatts of capacity — the lowest in SECI’s wind energy auction history. ENGIE went ahead with the 200 megawatt bid at Rs 2.79/kWh (3.98¢/kWh) matching its highest-ever win in India’s wind energy auctions. The company had secured 200 megawatts of capacity in the fourth national-level wind energy auction conducted by SECI in April 2018. The lowest bid in that auction was Rs 2.51/kWh (3.58¢/kWh).
ReNew Power, the developer with the largest share of wind energy wins in Indian auctions to date, placed a bid for just 50 megawatts. The company has participated in seven of the 12 auctions conducted in the country till date and had an average win size of around 238 megawatts before this auction.
Sprng Energy, part of the Actis Group, placed a successful bid for 100 megawatts. This marks the fourth win for the company, and the second in SECI wind energy auctions. Sprng’s average win size before this tender was around 232 megawatts.
Finally, Adani Green Energy secured rights to develop 130 megawatts, marking its 9th win in 12 wind energy auctions. The average win size for Adani up to this auction was around 174 megawatts. The company quoted the highest tariff in the auction at Rs 2.83/kWh (4.04¢/kWh).
SECI has not issued a request for selection document for the 8th national-level tender yet. It would be interesting to see if the agency would reduce the offer size in the upcoming tenders or increase the tariff threshold following the rising trend of tariff bids from project developers in the recent auctions. The lowest tariff bid for a wind energy project in India remains Rs 2.44/kWh (3.48¢/kWh) recorded in SECI’s third national-level tender held in February 2018.
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