Tariffs climbed significantly in the latest wind power auction held by India's largest thermal power producer National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), as winning tariffs reached RUP2.77-2.83/kWh (roughly US$4c/kWh), which is much higher than the RUP2.51-2.52/kWh (US$c3.6/kWh) winning tariffs of the last wind power auction carried out by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) in April 2018.
The main drivers behind the tariff rise are estimated to be the higher finance cost and limited availability of available transmission facilities for the projects. SECI recently cancelled a 2,000 MW tender, since only four developers had submitted technical bids, all for 300 MW each. NTPC initially aimed to auction 2,500 MW of projects, but got bids only for 2,000 MW and decided to reduce the tender amount to 1,200 MW.
The lowest bid came from Sprng Energy (renewable energy arm of private equity fund Actic), which won 200 MW at RUP2.77/kWh, while the local developer Mytrah Energy won 300 MW at RUP2.79/kWh. French utility EDF won 50 MW at a price of RUP2.83/kWh.