The Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM) has issued amendments to the expression of interest (EoI) issued to empanel agencies to design, supply, install, and commission 30 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar projects in the city.

The projects will be developed on the rooftops of residential buildings, group housing societies, and residential welfare associations under the net metering mechanism. The contract will also include the maintenance for five years under the ‘Soura Gruha Yojana.’

The revised date for the submission of bids is August 19, 2020.

In March 2020, BESCOM had issued an empanelment tender for the design, supply, installation, and commissioning of 30 MW of rooftop solar grid-connected power projects in the Bengaluru.

But in July, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy issued the benchmark costs for grid-connected rooftop solar projects for the year 2020-21.  In line with this, the benchmark costs for the tender have been revised as follows:

Also, according to the amendment, the evacuation of energy from the rooftop projects should abide by the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) regulations. For projects above 50 kW, the infrastructure charges have to be borne by the government. The cost of bidirectional meters should be borne by the respective consumers. In the previous clause, the cost of the bidirectional meter was to be included in the quoted price.

For the financial evaluation, the bidder should quote the price for all the six categories, which was earlier set for four categories. The work will be awarded to the L1 bidder for all categories only if it matches L1 rates quoted by other L1 bidders in all categories.

For the 10 MW capacity reserved exclusively for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the earnest money deposit (EMD) has been reduced to ₹4.7 million (~$62,950) from the earlier ₹5.4 million (~$72,326).

Similarly, the EMD amount to be paid for 20 MW of projects is lowered to ₹9.4 million (~$125, 902) from the earlier ₹10.8 million (~$164,653).

Under the financial criteria for the 10 MW capacity, the annual turnover of the lead bidder and its joint venture partner is slashed to ₹235 million (~$3.15 million) from the previous quoted ₹270 million (~$3.62 million). Similarly, for the 20 MW capacity, the average annual turnover has now been brought down to ₹470 million (~$6.29 million) from ₹540 million (7.23 million).

For the 10 MW project, the liquidity assets of the lead bidder and their joint venture partner have been revised to ₹117.5 million (~$1.57 million), from ₹135 million (~$1.81 million) set previously. Similarly, for the 20 MW project capacity, the liquidity assets of the lead bidder and its joint venture partner are now ₹235 million (~$3.15 million), down from ₹270 million (~$3.62).

According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, the rooftop installations totaled 234 MW as of June 2020.