​Year Of Completion: 2018

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supported WISE to execute a two-year project to prepare a comprehensive best practices standard for performance evaluation and O&M in the solar PV segment.

The outcome of the project was the ‘Best Practices Handbook on Performance Evaluation, Operation and Maintenance of Solar PV Plants’ brought out by WISE, which bridges the knowledge deficit gap on O&M for both, rooftop as well as ground-mounted solar PV plants. The Handbook has been very well received, and the International Solar Alliance has uploaded it on its website for ease of access to member countries.

WISE carried out a detailed survey, held extensive stakeholder consultations and expert interactions, and undertook on-site visits to multiple solar power plants all across India to map the prevalent performance evaluation parameters and O&M practices. The visits helped the team to identify gaps in current institutional benchmarks and market practices with respect to best-in-class standards. As part of the project, WISE also conducted three stakeholder training programmes to sensitize key stakeholders to best practices in solar O&M and performance evaluation.

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The EU Delegation to India in close cooperation with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, awarded a €4 million grant to a GWEC-led consortium under the Indo-European Cooperation on Renewable Energy programme. The FOWIND project sought to facilitate India’s transition towards low carbon development by supporting the implementation of national policies and programmes for offshore wind, with a special focus on the states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

As part of the consortium, WISE was entrusted with assisting and coordinating offshore wind development with the state government of Gujarat and it played an instrumental role in bringing the Government of Gujarat as co-grantor for the project. WISE also developed a project management office on its premises in Pune for this purpose and supported the consortium lead, GWEC, and other technical partners on key project deliverables, including preparation of pre-feasibility and final feasibility reports for 500 MW offshore wind capacity and associated offshore policy briefs and other technical papers on manufacturing, supply chain, grid integration, etc. On the implementation side, WISE took the lead in implementing project activities related to LIDAR selection, offshore structure selection, government coordination for offshore permits, and site visits and installation of LIDAR for measuring offshore wind resources in the Gulf of Cambay, Gujarat. The LIDAR was installed in 2017 and the wind resource readings are expected to provide valuable guidance to the on-site installation of the first offshore wind power project in India.

The project helped create more visibility and acceptance for offshore wind among policymakers and regulators. The project report deliverables in the areas of technology integration, supply chain, policy and grid infrastructure spurred new interest and investments in the field of offshore wind in India.

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