New 550 Megawatt Solar Tender Issued By Indian State
India’s most populous state has issued a new tender just days after it successfully concluded another tender for 500 megawatts of capacity.
Uttar Pradesh New Energy Development Agency (UPNEDA) has issued a fresh tender to set up 550 megawatts of solar power capacity in the state. Power purchase agreements for the projects shall be signed by various power distribution utilities of the state.
This new tender seems to be a second phase of an initial 1 gigawatt solar power tender that UPNEDA cancelled after bidders quoted very high tariff bids. Following the cancellation of that tender, UPNEDA announced that it would re-tender the capacity in two separate tranches of 500 megawatt capacity each.
UPNEDA recently completed an auction of 500 megawatt capacity, and got seemingly satisfactory tariff bids for the same although the participation declined substantially. Now, the agency has launched this fresh tender.
The maximum allowed tariff bid is expected to be the same as the first 500 megawatt capacity of Rs 3.25/kWh (¢4.41/kWh), inclusive of safeguards duty on Chinese and Malaysian solar cells/modules, and Rs 3.10/kWh (¢4.21/kWh) without the safeguards duty. The recent auction witnessed tariff bids in the range of Rs 3.17/kWh (¢4.30/kWh) and Rs 3.22/kWh (¢4.37/kWh). The latest tender is expected to see bids in the same range as well.
As was the case with the recent auction, several major project developers may not participate in this latest tender. Low solar radiation, lack of ready transmission infrastructure, uncertainty associated with timely payments, and relatively smaller capacity sizes would be some of the major reasons why the leading project developers may stay away from this tender.
New Floating Solar Tender Issued
Another tender was recently issued for 70 megawatts of floating solar power projects in the southern Indian state of Kerala. The tender has been issued by India’s largest power generation, NTPC Limited.
The capacity would come up near a combined cycle gas-based power plant at Kayamkulam. The tender represents NTPC’s first foray into floating solar power projects. The company has auctioned several gigawatts of solar power capacity. At present, the company has a solar-wind hybrid tender open with capacity of 190 megawatts.
The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) recently issued a seventh extension to the country’s largest floating solar power tender for 150 megawatts of capacity. SECI relaxed several provisions and clauses in the tender to attract bidders for this first-of-its-kind tender.
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