The Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), a government entity under the administrative control of the Ministry of Power (MoP), has floated a tender for the design, manufacture, testing, and supply of 1.9 million LED streetlights in Telangana gram panchayats and other states across India.

Some of these states include Gujarat, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarkhand, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Bihar, including Delhi. These streetlights should have a warranty period of seven years. The project, which is called the ‘Demand-side Energy Efficiency Investment Project,’ comes under the Street Lighting National Program (SLNP).

For this project, the EESL received funds from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The deadline for the submission of bids is June 4, 2020. The tender is open to both international and domestic bidders. A pre-bid conference will be held on May 11, 2020.

The bidder will need to furnish a bid security deposit of ₹8.4 million (~$0.11 million). The quantities or contract value may be increased or decreased by up to 20%.

As per the tender document, interested bidders should have their trademark registered in the Indian or international markets. The proof of trademark registration, which should be at least one-year-old from the date of floating the tender, needs to be submitted at the time of bidding.

The EESL also states that the bidder should have manufactured, tested, and supplied LED streetlights between 117,000-240,000 in the last three financial years (FY). The bidder should have a minimum capacity of manufacturing 2,500 LED streetlights per day.

The bidder must also submit details of in-house facilities for manufacturing LED streetlights.

Regarding the financial performance, the bidder should have made a profit in at least two years out of the three fiscal years of (FY) 2016-17, FY2017-18, and FY 2018-19. In the case of the international bidder, FY 2017, 2018, and 2019, it should all be profitable.

The average annual turnover of the bidder in the three preceding financial years should be between ₹0.83 billion (~$10.87 million) to ₹0.84 billion (~$11 million).

EESL works with electricity distribution companies through a benefit-sharing approach. According to the government, EESL intends to invest ₹80 billion (~$1.1 billion) for the installation and retrofitting of over 30 million LED streetlights in the next four to five years.

In January 2020, the Ministry of Power stated that over 361.3 million LED bulbs were distributed across India, and 10.3 million smart LED streetlights were installed under the UJALA and LED Street Lighting National Program at an estimated energy savings of 6.97 billion kWh/year.

In February 2019, Mercom reported that Coimbatore Smart City issued a tender for the replacement of existing conventional streetlights by smart LED energy-efficient lamps.