Ministry floats draft proposal for off-shore wind energy project off Tamil Nadu coast.

The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) has invited proposals for its draft tender on leasing out seabed areas for a 4 gigawatt (GW) equivalent offshore wind capacity project off the coast of Tamil Nadu

The government proposes to lease out the sea bed, which includes specifically identified offshore wind sub-blocks B1, B2, B3, B4 and G1 off the coast of Tamil Nadu in the Gulf of Mannar, in the current financial year.

Interested parties and stakeholders can submit their responses on the proposal by November 28.

“Selection of offshore wind power developers (OWPD) for leasing of sea-bed areas equivalent to 4,000 megawatt (MW) of offshore wind power projects off the coast of Tamil Nadu through International Competitive Bidding,” the request for selection (RfS) document floated by the Ministry said.

The grid connectivity and Long-Term Open Access/access to grid under the general network access (GNA) framework) to grid shall be in the scope of the OWPD. The energy generated from offshore wind power projects is to be consumed in captive mode or sold to third parties under open access framework or sold through merchant sale/ power exchange, it added.

The OWPD will have the exclusive rights over the allocated sea block to carry out required study surveys and subsequent project development. Each block will be assigned with a tentative minimum installable offshore wind power capacity.

However, the actual MW capacity to be installed by the OWPD in the Block shall be determined pursuant to the finalisation of the detailed project report in accordance with the Survey Lease Deed, it added.

HBL