Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) has floated a tender for the development and maintenance of a 7.56 MW (AC)/ 9.97 MW (DC) ground-mounted solar project in Tadali village of Chandrapur district in Maharashtra.

The power generated from the project will be used primarily at the BPCL Refinery in Mumbai through Intrastate power transfer mode.

The successful bidder will be responsible for the design, engineering, supply, installation, and commissioning of the project along with the operation and maintenance for a period of 5 years.

The bidder must furnish an Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) of ₹1 million (~$12,116).

The last date for submitting the bids is June 7, and they will be opened on the same day.

The successful bidder must submit a Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) of 10% of the basic value of the contract within 15 days of receiving the letter of award for the solar project.

The medium and small-scale enterprises (MSE) participating in the bidding process must ensure they are registered on the government’s UDYAM registration portal, to avail the benefits of public procurement policy under the MSMED Act 2006/ Public Procurement Policy Order 2012.

The bidder must have experience in executing engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) work or as a developer of ground-mounted, floating, canal, or rooftop solar projects on a turnkey basis.

They must have undertaken at least one EPC work or should have been a developer of a minimum 2.27 MW solar power generating system in last ten years that should have successfully completed six months of satisfactory performance since the commissioning.

The bidder must also have experience in installing and commissioning of minimum 6.6 kV switchboard and transformer at a single location.

The bidder should have completed three financial years of existence as on original due date of tender since the commencement of the business.

The average annual turnover of the bidder during the last three years must be ₹150 billion (~$2 billion).

SLNKO Energy has been appointed as the project management company (PMC) to provide its engineering services for the project. All the drawings and documents related to detailed engineering, construction, testing, and commissioning will be reviewed and approved by the PMC and BPCL.

The scope of work includes ensuring the warranty for the materials against manufacturing defects, performance, and design for 24 months from the date of performance demonstration or operational acceptance.

The selected bidder must ensure the use of solar modules of minimum 535Wp Mono PERC, including mounting frames, module mounting structures, foundation bolts, and nuts for holding structures and module interconnection.

The minimum certified module efficiency should be a minimum of 20.5%, and its temperature coefficient must not be over 0.36% degrees Celsius, with the fill factor of the module not less than 0.76.

The bidder must ensure that all modules should carry a performance warranty of more than 92% during the first 10 years and over 83% of its rated capacity after 25 years from successful commissioning and acceptance of the solar project by the PMC or BPCL.

As per the tender terms, this project is to be designed for 1500V DC voltage, wherein the inverter output voltage for the project is 800V AC which will be further stepped up to 33kV for termination.

The selected bidder must oversee the plant configuration, space optimization, solar insolation data, and basis for generation, and visit the location where the project will be built, along with other responsibilities to ensure the project is constructed well and in time.

The bidder must arrange the facility for testing bulk material on site, such as elcometer for testing the galvanization, and a cube-testing machine for testing the strength of cube samples, among others.

The bidder must also provide a Balance of System package for the successful installation and commissioning of the solar project at Tadali.

Bidder must provide a permanent arrangement for the module washing in the plant. This shall include pumps and motors, among others.

The completion and commissioning of the project must be completed within 6 months from the date of accepting the letter of award.

Last November, BPCL issued a tender to hire consultancy services for setting up 6.9 MW of floating solar power projects in the rainwater harvesting pond and shore tank farm in Kochi, Kerala.

In September 2022, BPCL invited bids for the engineering, supply, installation, testing, and commissioning of a 6 MW solar power project at its refinery in Kochi.