Central Electronics Limited (CEL), a public sector enterprise under the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, has announced a tender to supply 1.8 million polycrystalline solar cells.

The last day to submit the bids is May 12, 2022. Bids will be opened on the same day.

Bidders are not required to pay an earnest money deposit for this tender.

Only original manufacturers or authorized representatives with valid authorization letters can submit the bids. Manufacturers must have a minimum of 30 MW per annum in-house polycrystalline solar cells manufacturing capacity.

The cells must be five bus bar cells with a wattage of 4.68W. Their dimensions must be either 156.75 x 156.75 ± 0.25 mm or 157 x 157 ± 0.25 mm. The cells must have a thickness of 200 μm ± 20 μm. They must also have a silicon nitride anti-reflective coating. The cells must have a silver busbar width of 0.8 mm ± 0.2 mm in the front and 1.5 mm ± 0.3 mm in the back.

The cells should be free of visual defects like broken or chipped edges, micro-cracks, pinholes, discontinuity of metal printing liens, spots, spillages or smears, color variations, and non-uniform printing lines.

The lowest quoting bidder would be decided based on the lowest landing cost of items to CEL. CEL reserves the right to split the quantity and award it to two or more vendors.

If the quantity is split between two approved vendors, the entire quantity will be distributed in the ratio of 70:30 between the lowest bidder (L1) and the second-lowest bidder (L2). If the quantity is split among three approved vendors, 60% quantity would be awarded to L1 and 40% to the L2 and L3 bidders.

Micro and small enterprises (MSE) quoting prices within the price band of L1+15% will also be allowed to supply up to 20% of the requirement by bringing down their price to L1 price where L1 is non-MSEs. If the price quoted by an MSE is within L1+15% and such MSE is L4 or higher, provided L1, L2 and L3 are not the MSEs, then the MSE bidder will be allowed to supply 20% of the tender quantity.

Bidders are expected to supply a sample containing 200 such cells that meet the given specifications.

If defective cells are less than 3% of the entire lot, all such cells must be replaced free of cost. If defective cells are more than 3% of the entire lot, then the whole lot would be rejected. If a Lot is accepted during the sample check but found defective during production, those cells would have to be replaced by the supplier.

If deliveries are delayed, the price will be reduced by 0.5% of the total order value per week or part thereof, subject to a maximum of 5% of the total order value.

Last month, ITI Limited, a public sector undertaking under the Department of Telecommunications, floated a tender to supply 23,50,080 polycrystalline solar cells.

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