Maharashtra Becomes the first state to launch Hybrid Tender

India announced its sixth federal tender for 1.2GW, while Maharashtra is the first state to launch a wind-solar hybrid tender. The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), the agency entrusted with conducting wind auctions, has released its sixth tranche (SECI 6) wind tender for 1.2GW. The SECI 6 tender planned originally for 2.5GW and issued in May 2018 was later retracted and was scaled down to 1.2GW by the government as it argues that small tenders are more effective than larger ones. India has already auctioned a total wind energy capacity of 9.9GW with about 8.4GW from federal players and 1.5 GW equally spread across the three states of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Nature of Hybrid After the first federal tender on wind solar hybrid in November 2018, Maharashtra has taken the lead as the first state to go for an open wind-solar hybrid tender. The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) has issued a wind-solar hybrid tender due by 1 February 2019.The tender indicates a two-stage tendering process for projects with a minimum capacity of 100MW. However, the tender condition stipulates that the maximum capacity quoted by a single bidder will be the capacity that will then be put out for auction. MSEDCL has already identified around 2.7km2 of land for the projects and has also taken the state regulator’s approval for the tender. Another state Andhra Pradesh announced new progressive policies for wind and wind-solar-hybrids. Under the new policies, wind and hybrid projects will benefit from intra-state open access, and have government benefits available to them. The policies run for the next five years. The state government has set a target to achieve 18GW of renewable energy capacity by the financial year 2021-22. This uptake in activities on the wind and wind-solar hybrid areas from the government is an encouraging sign for the industry, which has been facing myriad issues related to transmission and land acquisitions.