While welcoming the newly notified policy on repowering of the wind power projects by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers' Association (IWTMA), strongly feels that the concessional interest rate offered by the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) over and above the interest rate rebates available to the new wind projects financed by IREDA will help boost investment in the wind energy sector.

Welcoming the move, DV Giri, Secretary General, IWTMA said, "Accelerated Depreciation (AD) and Generation Based Incentive (GBI) are also made available to the repowering projects as per the conditions applicable to the new wind power projects. With the new policy, wind turbine generators of capacity 1 MW and below would be eligible for repowering under the policy. Based on the experimental measure, the MNRE will extend the repowering policy to other projects also.

Under the new policy, a wind farm/turbine undergoing repowering would be exempted from not honouring the PPA for the non-availability of generation from wind farm/turbine during the period of execution of repowering. Similarly, in case of repowering by captive user, they will be allowed to purchase power from grid during the period of execution of repowering, on payment of charges as determined by the regulator, the policy further stated.

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