Guidelines for Implementation of Wind Resource Assessment under NCEF scheme

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has been carrying out a Wind Resource Assessment (WRA) Programme in the country through the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET), Chennai in association with State Nodal Agencies. The Ministry has initiated a new scheme on implementation of Wind Resource Assessment in Uncovered / New Areas with an aim to assess the realistic potential at 100 m level in 500 new stations under the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) also to be implemented through C-WET. Under this scheme, 40% of the total project cost will be provided from NCEF as reimbursement through C-WET and balance 60% of the total project cost shall have to borne together by the concerned State Nodal Agencies (SNA) of State Government and private developer(s) undertaking the wind resource assessment.

This scheme will be operational up to two years from the date of issue of first sanction order by CWET which can be extended if required.

Submission: Private developers  have to submit their proposals to respective SNA's. The concerned SNA's will ensure that the first lot of proposals for wind monitoring stations allotted to the state concerned shall be submitted to C-WET within 6 months from the date of issue of the scheme. Subsequently, C-WET will technically examine the proposals for establishing wind monitoring stations and forward the first lot consisting of establishment of minimum 100 WMS for seeking approval along with financial implications to Ministry. The next lot of WMS proposals, out of total 500 will be sent to MNRE every three months by C-WET and shall follow the same procedure.

Criteria for selection of uncovered / new areas for establishing WMS is given below:

• Those areas/ talukas where no WRA has taken place earlier and where there is potential of good wind resource will be taken up. 
• Sites of Wind Monitoring Stations for data measurement already established by C-WET/MNRE at 20/25/30 m height may be considered for Wind Resource Assessment at higher hub height of 100 m.
• The sites already measured by C-WET/MNRE for data measurement at 50/80/100/120 m height and as well as private wind monitoring stations registered with C-WET are excluded for Wind Resource Assessment under NCEF.
• State-wise Wind Power Potential Maps along with locations already measured at lower height of 20/25/30 m and uncovered areas with geographic coordinates by C-WET / MNRE of the concerned states be made available to SNA's including loading on C-WET's website. The private developers and the SNA's will finalize the locations as per the general guidelines for site selections

C-WET will release funds in two installments to SNA's and private developers in accordance with their share:

• After installation & commissioning of wind monitoring station, C-WET will reimburse the 50% of the NCEF grant share of 40%, upon confirmation to that effect provided by concerned SNA.
• After completion of the minimum one year continuous data collection and completion of project in all aspects including completion of verification by C-WET, the balance 50% of the NCEF contribution will be released to C- WET for further release to the SNA and private developer in accordance with their contribution.
• In case of any irregularity found in the implementation of the project, the subsidy given can be recovered from the implementer and project could be cancelled for further subsidy.

Implementation: Establishment of wind monitoring stations may be completed within 4 months from the date of issue of sanction by C-WET. This would enable the data collection at least for a continuous period of 24 months from the date of commissioning.

For further information, please refer to the attachment: