Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has invited bids for the supply of 1.25 million 157 mm diamond wire-sawn (DWS) multicrystalline silicon wafers.

The last date to submit the bids is December 3, 2022. Bids will be opened on the same day.

The tender is open only for domestic original multicrystalline silicon wafer manufacturers.

The successful bidder will have to furnish an amount equivalent to 5% of the purchase order value as a bank guarantee within 30 days of the relevant announcement. It will be valid until the end of the contract delivery period or actual delivery, whichever is later.

The wafers must be delivered within 45 days of securing manufacturing clearance.

To participate in the bidding process, the vendors are required to have a minimum of 100 MW/annum in-house photovoltaic-grade multi-crystalline wafer manufacturing capacity.

Also, the vendor should have supplied at least 500,000 pieces of 156.75 mm/157 mm/157.75 mm multicrystalline black DWS silicon wafers to solar cell manufacturers from countries other than the vendor’s country of origin during the period from March 31, 2019, to April 1, 2022.

The minimum average annual turnover of the bidder during the last three financial years should be ₹12.6 million (~$154,099).

Moreover, if the vendor fails to supply the required quantity within the stipulated date, they will be liable to pay liquidated damages equivalent to 0.5% of the total contract price per week or part thereof, subject to a maximum of 10% of the total contract price.

BHEL said that up to 25% of tendered quantity will be procured mandatorily from micro and small enterprises (MSEs). MSE vendors quoting within the lowest price band (L1) + 15% will be eligible for supply but subject to the acceptance of the L1 price.

If the L1 bidder is not an MSE, all the MSE vendors who quote within L1 + 15% will be allowed to match the L1 price.

Out of the reserved supply quantity for MSEs, 6.25% has been earmarked for MSEs owned by Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe entrepreneurs and 3% for women-owned MSEs.

Any bidder from a country that shares a land border with India will be eligible to bid in this tender only if the entity is registered with the competent authority.

Last October, BHEL invited bids for procuring 7.1 million 158.75 mm DWS multicrystalline silicon solar wafers.

Earlier, BHEL had invited bids to enter into a memorandum of understanding with vendors for procuring silicon wafers for manufacturing solar cells to meet the annual module manufacturing capacity of 200 MW.

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