Power India has done a study on the comparative analysis of two major incentives being given to Wind Projects – Accelerated Depreciation and Generation Based Incentives.
Background
- Although the Accelerated Depreciation (AD) Scheme contributed more to make India’s wind installation globally one of the largest with 15,000 MW however the same was also a reason for poor quality of projects leading to lower generation.
- Under AD Scheme, developers were able to get 80% depreciation benefit (against the normal rate of 15%) in the initial years only which was causing them to focus little on Plant Load Factor (PLF), Machine Availability, Actual Generation, Losses and other quality aspects of the Project.
- Due to this despite having large capacity of wind projects, India’s actual wind power generation is very poor.
- Although, Accelerated Depreciation benefit for Wind Projects has been withdrawn by Income Tax Department on 30th March 2012[1], have since been conflicting reports that it would be revived.
We are giving a snapshot of the comparison between the AD Scheme & GBI Scheme.
1. Current major Initiatives
a. Accelerated Depreciation
- Government of India (“GoI”) had introduced Accelerated Depreciation scheme (“AD Scheme”) in mid nineties.
- Wind energy producer were entitled to claim up to 80% accelerated depreciation in the first year itself.
- Over the years AD was the major driver for the development of the wind industry in the country.
b. Generation Based Incentive
- MNRE has introduced a Generation Based Incentive scheme (“GBI Scheme”) on 17th December 2009.
- GBI Scheme entitles the wind energy producer to get Rs. 0.50/unit (over and above the tariff) of electricity produced for the first 10 years of project life subject to maximum cap of Rs. 62 Lacs/MW.
- The scheme was can be availed only if AD Scheme has not been availed. Further, the maximum capacity of the projects under this scheme was capped at 4000 MW and was applicable for the projects commissioned till 31st March 2012.
- It is expected that extending the validity and incentives of GBI Scheme is under consideration however; currently no official notification to this effect has been published.
2. AD Scheme (Key driver):
- Ownership of wind assets appeared more attractive for a “diversified” corporate taxpayer, being eligible for an Accelerated Depreciation (80%/40%) of the cost of the asset (in the initial years of operation), with equity financing of only 30%.
- As a consequence, functionality of the wind asset came to be determined by the tax absorption capacity of the corporate, rather than aspects such as optimal capacity of the wind farm, prospective revenue stream etc.
- However, for Independent Power Producers (IPPs) the extant scheme only offers a marginal benefit, since the entire depreciation needs to be absorbed within 5 years of commissioning, for the income-tax holiday to be fully availed.
3. Current Mix – AD vs IPPs:
- Historically 80%-90% of wind projects being installed in India are under AD Scheme due to the higher profitability of wind energy projects considering the benefits of AD Scheme.
- According to recent data of IREDA[2], the registering authority of AD Scheme, ~1300 MW of Wind Projects have been registered under AD Scheme out of the total installations of ~3600 MW during the period 2010-11 & 2011-12.
- During recent years, large IPPs started setting up wind projects and share of AD has gone down. The current market share of wind projects under AD Scheme is roughly ~40%.
4. Impact of removal of AD benefits:
- Wind Projects to be installed after 31st March 2012, will not be able to take benefits of AD Scheme.
- IT Depreciation is reduced to 15% from the earlier level of 80%, which is in line with the other projects. This will take away the entire AD Scheme driven market of ~40%.
- Last FY (2011-12) Wind installations were in the range of 3200 MWs (around 40% were expected to be from AD market). These customers unlikely to be interested in the wind projects any more. GBI Scheme which was mutually exclusive to AD has also expired on 31st Mar 2012.
- It is expected that Wind Industry will take a hit on this and expected installations next FY will be restricted to ~ 2000 MW only.
- However, quality of projects (i.e. size of wind farms, capacity of machines) are expected to increase going forward as only serious players will going to be in the wind business.
[1] Notification No. 15/2012 [F.No.149/21/2010-SO(TPL)] Dated 30-3-2012
[2] IREDA has started issuing unique identification nos to the registered WTGs under AD Scheme from the end 2009.
More Literature on this topic:
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