India Drafts Wind Turbine Certification Scheme

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), in consultation with the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE), has prepared a draft certification scheme incorporating guidelines for wind turbines.

The Indian Wind Turbine Certification Scheme (IWTCS) enlists turbine guidelines from concept to lifetime and various best practices from other countries aiming to ensure the quality of wind energy projects.

According to MNRE, the draft is a consolidation of relevant national and international standards (IS/IEC/IEEE), technical regulations and requirements issued by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), international guidelines, as well as those established by the Ministry itself.

It includes the Indian Type Approved Model (ITAM), Indian Type Certification Scheme (ITCS), Wind Farm Project Certification Scheme (WFPCS) and the Wind Turbine Safety & Performance Certification Scheme (WTSPCS).

The document is expected to assist all stakeholders, including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), end users and utilities, developers and owners, authorities, investors and insurers, certification bodies, as well as testing laboratories.

The Ministry is inviting comments from the public and stakeholders for finalizing the new scheme. The submission deadline is 5 December.

More than 30 companies and consortia have shown interest to build a 1,000MW offshore wind project in India, following NIWE’s invitation for expressions of interest issued earlier this year.

The list includes some of the leading names such as Ørsted, Van Oord, Equinor, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, wpd, E.ON, innogy, and Senvion, among others.

To remind, India’s current target is achieving 5GW of offshore wind capacity by 2022 and 30GW by 2030.