Indian Wind Energy Association (IWEA), an industry body of wind energy developers, has moved the high court, challenging a Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) order to allow Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Co (TANGEDCO) hold a wind auction for 500 MW with the base price set at Rs 3.46 per unit — a record low tariff found in the first and only wind auction in the country held in February.
IWEA in its petition called TNERC’s order issued on June 2 “arbitrary, illegal, unjust and deserving to be quashed”. It argued that since an earlier tariff order of the regulator was valid till April 1, 2018, any fresh tariff related order could only be passed after this period had expired. TNERC had passed a comprehensive tariff order on wind energy, applicable for two years starting April 1, 2016, setting the wind power tariff at Rs 4.16 per kilowatt hour (kWh).
Wind energy tariffs so far had been set by state regulators and mostly varied between Rs 4 and Rs 6 per kWh.
The petition also pointed out that the final guidelines for states choosing to hold wind auctions had not yet been issued by the Center, though draft guidelines had been circulated.
It seems that in order to please Central Government who has been calling for auctioning of all renewables energy projects, states governments of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat got so carried away that they went on to seek renegotiation of old power purchase agreements (PPAs) which were signed at higher tariffs.
TNERC, TANGEDCO and IWEA all declined to comment since the matter is sub judice.