The Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has issued a tender for the design and supply of a solar floatation platform of 25 MW capacity. The floating solar project will be installed at the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)’s site in Simhadri, Andhra Pradesh.

In July, BHEL won the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) order for setting up the 25 MW floating solar PV project. The order came from the National Thermal Power Corporation Limited and was valued at ₹1 billion (~$ 14.57 million).

The last date for the submission of bids is October 30, 2019.  The water body available for the project is 165 acres.

According to BHEL, an interested bidder should be a manufacturer of solar PV floater and should have manufactured and supplied solar PV floaters of a minimum capacity of 100 kW at a single location. The other criterion mentioned by BHEL is that the supplied floating system should have been successfully commissioned.

As per the tender requirements, prospective bidders should furnish a solvency certificate issued by nationalized or scheduled banks worth at least ₹30 million (~$0.42 million) in the last three years.

The offer will be valid for a period of 90 days from the date of the technical bid opening date.

Apart from the design and supply, the scope of work also includes the inclusion of accessories with mooring and anchoring on which the project will be constructed.

According to BHEL, nearly 107,700 PV modules will be installed for the project.

As per the tender, each floater unit used in the project must be warranted against crack, puncture, and breakage for at least 25 years. The thermoplastic fasteners, if used, must also be warranted against its sequential failure.

As per the technical specifications, the floating units should be prefabricated and modular in design with appropriate buoyancy to support the weight of at least one solar panel/equipment and one person (with a minimum weight of 80 kg)/unit.

Recently in September 2019, BHEL had also issued a tender for the design and supply of a complete floatation platform for 100 MW of solar projects at NTPC’s site in Telangana.

Image credit: CC BY-SA 3.0

Anjana is a news editor at Mercom India. Before joining Mercom, she held roles of senior editor, district correspondent, and sub-editor for The Times of India, Biospectrum and The Sunday Guardian. Before that, she worked at the Deccan Herald and the Asianlite as chief sub-editor and news editor. She has also contributed to The Quint, Hindustan Times, The New Indian Express, Reader’s Digest (UK edition), IndiaSe (Singapore-based magazine) and Asiaville. Anjana holds a Master’s degree in Geography from North Bengal University, and a diploma in mass communication and journalism from Guru Ghasidas University, Bhopal.