The Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) has retendered 700 MW of grid-connected solar projects located in the state’s Dholera solar park (Phase IX).

Interested bidders are expected to pay an earnest money deposit of ₹400,000 (~$5,397)/MW. The last date for the submission of bids is April 18, 2020.

Bidders will also have to pay a performance bank guarantee of ₹944,000 ((~$12,737)/MW at the time of signing of the power purchase agreement.

To be eligible to take part in the competitive bidding process, applicants must have a net worth of at least ₹8 million (~$107,941)/MW quoted as of the end of the last financial year.

The ceiling tariff for the tender has been set at ₹2.92 (~$0.039)/kWh. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) had recently communicated that the upper ceiling tariffs would no longer be prescribed in future bids for solar and wind projects. However, since this capacity has been retendered out of the 1 GW capacity floated last year, it still comes with a ceiling tariff.

Tendered in January 2019, the upper tariff ceiling for this tender had been set at ₹2.75 (~$0.039)/kWh. Even after four bid extensions, the tender ended up being undersubscribed by 700 MW. As bids totaling 300 MW were submitted, GUVNL auctioned 80% of the capacity for which bids were submitted by rounding it off to 250 MW.

Then in May 2019, the state had auctioned 250 MW of solar projects at Dholera Solar Park (Phase V).

According to a government official, both the bidders quoted a tariff of ₹2.75 (~$0.039)/kWh. Gujarat Industries Power Company Limited (GIPCL) bid ₹2.75 (~$0.039)/kWh to set up 50 MW of grid-connected solar PV projects while Tata Power quoted ₹2.75 (~$0.039)/kWh to set up 250 MW of solar PV capacity but was awarded only 200 MW.

The Dholera solar park is expected to cover an area of more than 27,000 acres upon completion to develop 5 GW of solar projects. According to a Gujarat state government release issued earlier this year, “The proposed solar park will attract investment of ₹250 billion (~$3.84 billion) and provide employment opportunities to more than 20,000 individuals.”

Recently, Mercom reported that GUVNL also announced the list of successful bidders in the auction for 500 MW of grid-connected solar projects (Phase VIII). The successful bidders were Vena Energy Clean Power Private Limited, which won a capacity of 40 MW at the quoted price of ₹2.61 (~$0.035)/kWh, Juniper Energy Green Power Limited which won a capacity of 190 MW at ₹2.63 (~$0.036)/kWh. Tata Power placed its bid for 200 MW but won a capacity of 120 MW in line with the bucket filling method at a tariff of ₹2.64 (~$0.037)/kWh.

Image credit: Parabel GmbH / CC BY-SA