Central Electronics Limited, a Government of India enterprise, has issued an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) tender for 95 MW of decentralized solar projects in seven lots in Maharashtra. The capacity of the projects will range between 2 MW and 10 MW.

The last date to submit bids is December 17, 2021. Bids will be opened on the same day.

Bidders do not need to furnish any earnest money deposit for this tender.

The company has allotted 14 MW of capacity for Lot A, 16 MW for Lot B, 17 MW for Lot C, and 14 MW for Lot D. A capacity of 11 MW, 10 MW, and 13 MW of solar projects are reserved for Lots F, H, and J, respectively.

The project sites for these projects are in the districts of Washim, Buldhana, Wardha, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Satara, Pune, Sangli, Jalgaon, and Solapur.

The scope of work includes the design, engineering, supply, construction, erection, testing, commissioning of decentralized solar power projects, and associated transmission system up to 11 kV or 22 kV at selected substations on a turnkey basis in seven lots.

The successful bidders must also provide compressive operation and maintenance (O&M) services for 12 years from the date of commissioning of the projects. They also need to furnish lot-wise O&M performance security in the form of a bank guarantee for 10% of the O&M cost of the lot within 20 days from the date of the commissioning of the last project.

To participate in the competitive bidding process, bidders should have developed a total of 5 MW of grid-connected solar power projects in the past five financial years. Of this, at least one solar project must have a 1 MW capacity at a single location.

To bid for Lots A and B, bidders should have a minimum annual average turnover of ₹187 million (~$2.49 million) and ₹213 million (~$2.84 million) in the last four financial years. The annual turnover for Lot C should be ₹227 million (~$3.03 million) and ₹187 million (~$2.49 million) for Lot D. The annual turnover for Lots F, H, and J should be ₹147 million (~$1.96 million), ₹133 million (~$1.77 million), and ₹173 million (~$2.31 million) respectively.

The successful bidder must provide a warranty for the solar photovoltaic modules used in the projects. The modules’ degradation must not be less than 90% at the end of 10 years and 80% at the end of 25 years.

In June 2021, Central Electronics Limited invited bids to supply 200,000 monocrystalline solar cells of wattage capacity 5.1 W or higher.

Earlier, it issued a tender to develop 100 MW of grid-connected solar projects across Maharashtra.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, CEL has issued tender for 649 MW of solar projects to date.