Renewable energy. Gujarat closes in on Tamil Nadu’s leadership position in wind power race

Gujarat is on the verge of overtaking Tamil Nadu as the country’s top State in terms of wind power capacity installation.

Tamil Nadu has been at the forefront of harnessing renewable energy, including the wind energy, over the last two decades. However, with faster capacity additions in recent months, favourable policy and support measures, the western State is likely to snatch the leadership position from Tamil Nadu soon.

At the end of March 2021, Tamil Nadu’s total wind capacity was 9608 MW, while Gujarat’s capacity was nearly 1,000 MW lower at 8562 MW.

However, by the end of January, 2023, Gujarat’s total wind power capacity rose to 9,919 MW, while Tamil Nadu’s installed wind energy capacity stood at 9964 MW. In the current fiscal, Gujarat has added 710 MW, while Tamil Nadu’s addition was just 99 MW.

Tamil Nadu’s share of wind power in its total renewable energy capacity has fallen from 65 per cent in FY21 to 59 per cent in January 2023. This fall can attributed to the late offtake of most allocated tenders, said Hetal Gandhi, Director–Research, CRISIL Market Intelligence and Analytics.

Gujarat has moved up in overall renewable power capacity addition too. A year ago, Tamil Nadu was the leader in total renewable energy capacity (15,914 MW), while Gujarat was at the third position (15,518 MW) behind Karnataka (15,463 MW).

Now, Gujarat has moved to the second spot with a total capacity of 18,867 MW as of January 31, 2023, while .Rajasthan climbed to the top with a total capacity of 21,184 MW and Tamil Nadu slipped to the third position (17,627 MW).

Tamil Nadu vs Gujarat

Tamil Nadu appears to be facing challenges as evacuation is not on par with generation.

Low bid tariffs have led to a delay in commissioning of projects.

On the other hand, availability of infrastructure, relatively better performance on the “ease of business doing” and facilitative policy interventions have contributed to the good performance of Gujarat in recent years. 

“Unlike Tamil Nadu, Gujarat has a solar-wind hybrid policy that showcases the State government’s inclination for promoting hybrid projects that may add to round-the-clock green and clean power generation,” says Martand Shardul, Policy Director, GWEC India.

Also, Gujarat DISCOMs’ sound financial position has been instrumental in forging power purchase agreements (PPAs) with renewable energy developers.

“In Gujarat, the regulatory and policy framework is very conducive. Besides favourable banking and net metering regulation, the State has provided other benefits like land at concessional rates for large-scale deployment. Further, the State has met both its smart metre and feeder segregation targets,” says Vibhuti Garg, Director, South Asia, IEEFA (Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis).

“Unlike Gujarat, Tamil Nadu lacks a policy for hybrid projects and its wind tenders have remained dormant for the last few years. In recent months, wind ISTS (inter-state transmission system) projects have prominently found a seat in Karnataka. Hence, a slowdown in wind capacity addition in Tamil Nadu has become obvious,” states Shardul.

However, the Government of Tamil Nadu is undertaking several policy measures to accelerate new capacity addition and has prioritised this as part of its Climate Mission launched in December 2022. The State has so far harnessed only one-tenth of its wind power potential.

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