The Ordnance Factory Varangaon (OFV), has invited an Expression of Interest (EoI) for solar power projects of 5 MW capacity at its site located in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra.

Ordnance Factory, Varangaon is a vital defense production unit of the ammunition group under the Ordnance Factory Board in Kolkata, under the Ministry of Defense.

The deadline for the submission of the EoI is January 17, 2019.

Interested bidders need to submit their concept note and feasibility report on the lines of the technical and financial feasibility of the concept along with the bidder’s technical and financial capability.

Regarding the scope of work, the projects should be technologically agnostic within the technologies approved by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), which includes crystalline silicon or thin-film, with or without trackers.

As per the EoI specification, only commercially established and operational technologies can be used to minimize the technology risk and to achieve the timely commissioning of the projects.

The successful bidder will also be responsible for the construction and erection of a complete evacuation line along with the availability-based tariff (ABT) meters from the switchyard of the solar power project to the nearest substation.

According to the tender document, the possible evacuation arrangement can be made at 11 kV/415 V substations or as directed by the ordnance factory.

According to Mercom India Solar Project Tracker, Maharashtra has 1.6 GW of large-scale solar projects in operation, and 2 GW is currently under the development pipeline.

A few months ago, Muradnagar Ordnance Factory had also invited an expression of interest from solar power developers for installing a solar project of 15 MW capacity at its premises in Uttar Pradesh.

Image credit: Hbkfromckd108 – Own work [CC BY-SA 4.0]