Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), a public sector undertaking (PSU) involved in the manufacturing of electrical equipment, has won an order for setting up 129 MW of solar power projects in Telangana from Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL).

This is by far the largest solar power project order won by BHEL with a value of ₹5.65 billion (~$ 79.79 million).

The 129 MW projects are to be set up at four locations in Telangana – Ramagundam (50 MW), Yellandu (39 MW), Manuguru (30 MW), and Pegadapally (10 MW), on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis.

In August 2018, Mercom reported about SCCL’s plans to develop 300 MW of solar projects in captive mode on vacant lands at nine locations of the company. The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) had issued a tender to award EPC contracts for development of 150 MW solar PV capacity spread across various locations of SCCL. It was a domestic competitive bidding tender.

“BHEL has been awarded 129 MW in the first phase and the remaining capacity is yet to be processed. The most likely time to process the remaining capacity will be around February end”, an SCCL official informed Mercom India.

SCCL has estimated the entire capacity development to cost approximately ₹13,615 million (~$199.9 million) through a debt equity ratio of 70:30.

Per SCCL, the debt portion of ₹9,530 million (~$139 million) will be met through banks and foreign investors and equity portion of ₹4,085 million (~$ 59.6 million) will be met through SCCL’s internal resources. The SCCL board has approved detailed project reports for nine solar projects.

In June 2018, BHEL had announced bagging orders worth ₹1.25 billion (~$0.019 billion) for the development of two solar power projects in Gujarat.

Previously, Mercom reported that BHEL had bagged a 75 MW grid-connected solar PV project to develop in Gujarat Solar Park, located in Charanka village of Patan district.