The rating agency said in a report hybrid projects are likely to be competitive in tariff with respect to individual wind or solar energy projects, given their benefits of lower capital cost, optimization of transmission infrastructure and higher expected generation.
New Delhi: The latest policy promoting hybrid wind and solar projects by the government is a positive development for the renewable energy sector and is likely to help augment capacity addition in renewables on a larger scale, according to ICRA.
The rating agency said in a report hybrid projects are likely to be competitive in tariff with respect to individual wind or solar energy projects, given their benefits of lower capital cost, optimization of transmission infrastructure and higher expected generation.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) had earlier this week announced the national wind and solar hybrid policy. The idea is to provide a framework for promotion of large grid-connected wind-solar PV hybrid systems for efficient utilization of transmission infrastructure and land, reducing the variability in renewable power generation and achieving better grid stability.
Given that critical infrastructure such as land & evacuation network for wind or solar project accounts for about 10-12 per cent of the overall project cost, hybrid projects would benefit from a reduction in capital cost to some extent due to common infrastructure and land use in place, the report said.
Further, the generation profile of hybrid projects would be relatively better given that generation from both the sources is at different intervals and in complementary seasons. This, in turn, would partially address the concerns of distribution utilities over grid stability arising due to the intermittent nature of wind or solar.
The policy has also outlined the eligibility of procurement of hybrid renewable energy to meet the renewable purchase obligation norms (RPO, both solar and non-solar, by the obligated entities as well as the continuation of all other policy and financial benefits which are currently made available to existing wind & solar projects.
“While state-owned distribution utilities would prefer bidding route for procurement of hybrid energy going forward, clarity will be required in terms of final guidelines for procurement of such hybrid energy given that such guidelines are now in place for procurement of wind & solar energy. Further, the adequate evacuation network availability would be critical for new hybrid projects as well as for hybridization of existing wind or solar projects, given the higher generation profile expected with annual PLF between 30 per cent to 45 per cent,” said Sabyasachi Majumdar, Senior Vice President at ICRA.
The policy states that the hybrid power generated from the new wind-solar hybrid projects may be used for captive purpose, sale to third party through open access, sale to the distribution company either at tariff determined by the respective SERC or at tariff discovered through transparent bidding process and sale to the distribution company under renewable energy certificate (REC) mechanism.
Source: energy.economictimes.indiatimes
