The Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) has issued a tender for the procurement of five million smart meters to be installed across India.

India has applied for financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) towards the cost of the project titled “Scaling Up Demand Side Energy Efficiency Sector”.  Part of this financing will be for the winners of this bid.

The bid submission deadline is September 17, 2019.

The scope of work includes the designing, engineering, manufacturing, testing, inspection, packing, supply, transportation, insurance, and delivery of the smart meters to the project site. The details regarding locations will be announced later.

The smart meters should have a replacement warranty period of 5.5 years. The bidder will also have to provide operation and maintenance services up to ten years from the end of the warranty period.

The bid security amount for each lot is ₹20 million (~$0.29 million). The Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) for multiple lots will be the cumulative sum of the individual lots. The bidders can bid for multiple lots based on the qualifying criteria.

The technical and commercial bids will open on September 17, 2019.

The bidder must provide performance security in the form of a bank guarantee for the value corresponding to 10% of the total contract cost. The duration for the bank guarantee is seven years.

Eligibility Criteria:

The bidders or the manufacturers should have the production capacity and should be supplying digital electricity or prepaid or smart meters in the last three years as per the prescribed standards. The bidder should have a minimum manufacturing capacity of 50,000 smart meters per month.

Smart meters are slowly coming into vogue with numerous states initiating the process of replacing the conventional meters to become more energy efficient.

For instance, earlier this year, Uttar Pradesh issued a tender to set up bi-directional smart meters in the state. The bi-directional smart meters will be set up for each state-owned power distribution company in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Recently, the New Delhi Municipal Council area became the first municipal council in India to implement a 100% smart metering solution in its area.