The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has once again extended the bid submission deadline for a tender that includes 14 MW of solar power projects with 42 MWh battery storage system (7MW/21 MWh each) at Leh and Kargil.

The project has been floated under the Prime Minister Development Package. The deadline has now been extended to June 30, 2020, from June 01, 2020.

Earlier in April, SECI had extended the bid submission deadline for the project to June 01, 2020, from April 16, 2020.

In its earlier notification, SECI had said, “It’s evident that the global outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly hampered the functioning of all sectors including institutions, commercial establishments, offices and various manufacturing units are also at a standstill. India is phasing through this crucial time, having a complete lockdown of all the states and union territories (UTs) until April 14, 2020. In such a situation, the site visit for the subject request for selection (RfS) has already been postponed for an indefinite period.”

Earlier in February, SECI had floated the tender with the last date for the submission of bids being March 16, 2020.  SECI had initially issued an NIT for the tender in March 2019.

The projects will be developed on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis, and the selected project will be given a viability gap funding (VGF) in line with the terms and conditions of the RfS. The upper limit for the VGF to be quoted by a bidder has been kept at ₹130 million ($1.81 million) for 1 MW solar project with a battery storage of 3 MWh.

SECI will release 50% of the VGF after the supply of the equipment at the project site, and the remaining 50% will be released after the successful commissioning of the project.

As per the tender document, the land for the setting up the solar projects with battery storage will be facilitated and made available to the developer by the Ladakh Renewable Energy Development Agency (LREDA) and Kargil Renewable Energy Development Agency (KREDA) separately. The LREDA and KREDA will also provide the required land for the establishment of a substation.

In November last year, SECI had extended the bid submission deadline for its mega solar tender that called for 7.5 GW of grid-connected solar power projects in Leh and Kargil districts.

Owing to the nationwide lockdown, the government has announced several changes and deviations in the existing policies, including the ones related to renewable energy. Track the latest developments and initiatives taken by the government to fight the economic repercussions of the pandemic in the renewable industry here.