Wind Energy in India Languishes as Utility refuse to Buy Power from State Aggregators

Wind energy in India is languishing in a morbid state as existing awarded capacity as well as new tenders by state-owned aggregators like NTPC and SECI are not finding buyers from state-owned utilities. The Indian power sector has seen a major decline in demand over the last few months as industrial activity in the overall economy has slowed down. With GDP growth stalling, the demand for power has seen a major slowdown. This is making utilities reluctant to enter into power purchase contracts as they are facing difficulties in absorbing existing power capacities.

NTPC which had auctioned and awarded 1200 MW of wind energy capacity is unable to sell this power to buyers. Even new tenders that have been auctioned are not finding any bidders which is not a surprise given that there are no end buyers. The state aggregators are looking stupid in putting out new tenders when there is no surety of end demand. The Indian wind power ecosystem is facing a survival situation with new capacities hardly being installed. The wind turbine makers as well their component suppliers are seeing almost no new orders which are leading to losses as well as major job cuts across the supply chain.

Suzlon is almost on the verge of becoming bankrupt as it has seen losses and faces a major debt burden. Another major local domestic WTG supplier Inox Wind faces a similar predicament with no new orders coming its way. The suppliers were doing quite well two years ago when wind capacity had increased to 5000 MW but now the situation is quite the opposite. While MNRE has set up an ambitious 60 GW of wind capacity by 2022, that target now looks far far away with the dismal overall power situation. The other parts of the power sector such as the existing thermal coal power stations have also seen their load factors fall by a sharp 15% leading to losses for them as well with reduced power off-take from buyers of power. The situation is unlikely to change until the Indian economy starts to return to its normal pace of growth which is around 6%-7%.