The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has extended the bid submission date for its tender for 6 GW of the interstate transmission system (ISTS)-connected solar projects linked with setting up of 2 GW (per annum) of solar manufacturing component.

The new date for bid submissions is October 11, 2019. Earlier, the bid submission deadline was September 11, 2019.

When asked why there has been an extension in the bid submission date, a SECI official said, “Certain inputs are required from higher-ups.” He did not divulge any further details.

In June 2019, SECI had revamped and reissued the manufacturing linked solar tender which it had initially floated in January 2019.

Previously, Mercom had reported that SECI had set the maximum tariff payable to the project developer at ₹2.75 (~$0.039)/ kWh for 25 years. Then, a SECI official had informed Mercom that the tender is very flexible and has been issued after due deliberation and consultation with the minister, senior officials, manufacturers, and major stakeholders.

The senior official told Mercom that the maximum tariff payable to the project developer “may or may not change.”

Meanwhile, another senior official of SECI told Mercom, “There will be certain changes in the tender documents.”

In this tender, SECI had specified two bid packages which are as follows:

Bid package A: Under this, two projects will be awarded 500 MW of cell manufacturing capacity and 500 MW of module manufacturing capacity.

Bid package B: Under which 500 MW of ingot manufacturing and 500 MW of wafer manufacturing capacity will be awarded.

For each of these packages, a bidder can choose to bid for up to a maximum of 1.5 GW of solar PV project capacity.

A few days ago, Mercom had reported that SECI extended the bid submission dates for two tenders totaling 2.7 GW of solar project development.

Image credit: Tschoder [CC BY-SA 4.0]