The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has again extended the bid submission deadline for the 1.2 GW wind-solar hybrid tender. The tender was issued under Tranche III of the interstate transmission system (ISTS) program.

The new deadline has been set as October 29, 2020, and the pre-bid meeting will take place on October 21, 2020.

The projects involve setting up wind-solar hybrid power projects on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis. The tender was initially announced by SECI in December last year and has undergone 13 extensions since then.

As per the tender documents released earlier, interested bidders will have to pay an amount of ₹500,000 (~$6,813.2)/MW/project as the earnest money deposit (EMD). The ceiling tariff for the tender has been set as ₹2.88 (~$0.04)/kWh for the entire term of 25 years.

For each project, the minimum project capacity should be 50 MW, and the maximum capacity should be 300 MW. The total capacity of wind-solar hybrid power projects to be allocated to a bidder, including its parent, affiliate, or group company, should be limited to 1.2 GW.

The tender also mentions that the declared annual capacity utilization factor (CUF) should not be less than 30%. The developer should maintain the generation to achieve annual CUF, not less than 80% of the declared value and not more than 120% of the declared CUF value during the PPA duration of 25 years.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, SECI has tendered nearly 3.6 GW of solar-wind hybrid projects under the ISTS program (Tranche I to Tranche III) and auctioned 1.56 GW under Tranche I & II.

In March, SECI issued another tender for setting up of 1.2 GW of ISTS-connected renewable projects with a guaranteed peak power supply. In the tender, a project was asked to have at least two components. One will be the energy storage system component, and the other will be the renewable energy generating component. The renewable generating component could be either a solar photovoltaic system or a wind energy system, or a hybrid system of both technologies.