Corporate Renewable PPAs in India: a market & policy update

India’s renewable energy development has become a symbol of the country’s capacity to rapidly adopt new technology and a focal point of India’s efforts to avoid greenhouse gas emissions while meeting its growing energy needs.

Since 2016, many large commercial and industrial (C&I) customers in India have taken initial steps to procure renewable power. One option for companies to buy renewable power is to use corporate renewable Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). A PPA is a contract between a power buyer and a power producer to purchase electricity at a pre-agreed price for a pre-agreed period of time.

WBCSD members formed the India Corporate Renewable PPA Forum in 2017 to increase understanding and uptake of corporate renewable procurement in India. Because the Indian power market is constantly evolving, the India Corporate Renewable PPA Forum produces regular market and policy reviews to keep our members and other corporate buyers informed of the latest developments.

We published our first market and policy update for corporate renewable PPAs in India in June 2019. It concluded that corporate renewable PPAs in India flourished in 2017-18 due to waivers on open access charges offered by states such as Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The update also concluded that as the window of opportunity to avail these waivers ended in these states, the extension of such waivers was equally unlikely in other states across India.

This report is the second market and policy update in the series. It tracks policy changes, analyzes new business models and explores future trends that are likely to define the growth of corporate renewable PPAs in India.