Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam (GUVNL) has invited bids to procure power from 750 MW of grid-connected solar projects (Phase XVI) with a greenshoe option of an additional capacity of up to 750 MW.

The last date to submit the bids online is August 23, 2022. Bids will be opened on August 26.

GUVNL may decide to enter into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with successful bidders for 25 years from the scheduled commercial operation date of the project.

Bidders must submit ₹400,000 (~$5,028)/MW as an earnest money deposit. The successful bidder should furnish a performance bank guarantee (PBG) of ₹944,000 (~$11,868)/MW after the issuance of the letter of intent and before signing the PPA.

Only commercially established and operational technologies can be used to minimize the technology risk and achieve the projects’ timely commissioning. Projects under construction and not having any PPA with existing buyers shall also be eligible to participate in the tender.

Solar projects will be allowed to be set up in the existing wind farms already connected to the grid, subject to the availability of spare capacity for renewable energy integration at the corresponding Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation (GETCO) substation.

The minimum project capacity should be 25 MW.

The successful bidder, if a single company, can also execute the project through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with at least 76% shareholding in the SPV registered under the Indian Companies Act, 2013, before signing the PPA.

The project should be designed to deliver energy at the GETCO periphery. The grid interconnection of the project with the state transmission utility (STU) or the central transmission utility (CTU) substation can be made directly through a dedicated line or a pooling substation of an existing wind farm.

The successful bidder will be responsible for getting grid connectivity with GETCO or CTU. It can arrange connectivity through a dedicated transmission line that the successful bidder may construct or get constructed by GETCO or any other agency on a deposit work basis or through a pooling sub-station of an existing wind farm.

The bidders’ net worth as of the last date of the preceding financial year should not be less than ₹8 million (~$100,576)/MW of the quoted capacity.

Any bidder from a country that shares a land border with India will be eligible to bid.

GUVNL has stated that the declared annual capacity utilization factor (CUF) should, in no case, be less than 17%. The successful bidder should maintain generation to achieve annual CUF within + 10% and -15% of the declared value until the end of 10 years, and within +10% and – 20% of the declared value of the annual CUF after that until the end of the PPA.

If the successful bidder cannot generate minimum energy within the permissible limit of CUF, the successful bidder will have to pay compensation at 25% of the PPA tariff to GUVNL.

The solar modules to be used for the solar projects must be warranted for peak output wattage, which should not be less than 90% at the end of 10 years and 80% at the end of 25 years from the commercial operation date of the project.

In April this year, GUVNL issued a request for selection from developers to purchase power from 500 MW of solar projects under Phase XIV with a greenshoe option of an additional capacity of up to 500 MW.

Earlier, Fortum Power (Alpha Energy), SJVN, Hinduja Renewables Energy, and UPC Renewables (AMSA Solar Energy) were declared winners in GUVNL’s auction to purchase power from 500 MW of grid-connected solar projects (Phase XIII).

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, GUVNL has so far floated tenders for 8.15 GW of solar projects.