Tulsi Tanti, the founder, chairman and managing director of Suzlon Energy, one of India’s leading wind component manufacturers and operations & maintenance service providers, was also a passionate champion of the wind energy sector.
As the chairperson of the nodal industry body, the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association (IWTMA), Rajkot-born Tanti had successfully lobbied the central government to in-principle agree to a revision in the bidding framework for wind projects. In July, a government committee had recommended shelving of e-reverse bidding for such projects following complaints that unhealthy competition had resulted in unviable tariffs.
A Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) commissioned study has estimated a gross wind power potential of 302 GW in the country. Most of this potential exists in seven windy states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Tariffs discovered based on the bids submitted under the e-reverse auction process had led to a majority of such projects being constructed in the states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
Tanti had gone on record claiming that a change in the e-reverse auction process would result in wind power installations increasing by up to ten times to 15000 MW per year from 1500 MW currently.
The decision to abolish the e-reverse auction process has come as a major relief to wind energy producers who were hit hard ever since the accelerated depreciation tax benefit was halved to 40 per cent from 80 per cent in the Union Budget 2016.
Till the time of his sudden demise on Saturday, he had also been campaigning for the extension of the government’s flagship Productivity-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to the original equipment makers (OEMs) in the sector.
“The PLI scheme is required in the wind energy sector the way it has been rolled out for the solar energy sector. This is especially required for larger turbines of 3 MW capacity or the offshore wind turbines," Tanti had told Business Today during an industry event in April.
The industry has been seeking PLI benefits, especially for a successful rollout of offshore wind energy projects.
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