India seems to be betting big on renewable energy to feed its ever-growing population’s energy needs & certainly, for a brighter and greener future. Recently, The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has successfully concluded the world’s largest renewable-plus-energy storage capacity tender at 4.04/kWh. The GOI agency allocated 1.2 GW of renewable energy capacity among two of India’s major developers.
Having received bids for 1.62 gigawatts against the 1.2 gigawatts sought, the tender witnessed Greenko secure 900 MW of pumped storage capacity and ReNew Power 300 MW of battery storage.
In this first-of-its-kind tender issued by SECI, the developers are required to supply firm & predictable renewable energy throughout the day. This will meet the peak requirements of the DISCOMs, which otherwise have to depend on spot markets without network assurance, supply or price. Developers were required to bid separate tariffs for supplying power during peak & off-peak periods. The peak period constitutes 11 hrs/day.
While Greenko Energy Holdings has secured rights to develop 900 MW of capacity with a peak period tariff of Rs 6.12/kWh and an off-peak period tariff of Rs 2.88/kWh, ReNew Power secured capacity of only 300 megawatts with peak period tariff of Rs 6.85/kWh and off-peak period tariff of Rs 2.88/kWh.
With two renewable energy-cum-storage projects in the states of Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh, Greenko Energy Holdings is the most experienced developers in this field, whereas ReNew Power is unknown to have worked on any massive-scale energy storage projects.