The Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) has issued Request for Selection (RfS) for the purchase of power from 500 MW grid connected solar photovoltaic power projects to be set up in Gujarat (Phase IV).

The capacity has been tendered in order to fulfill GUVNL’s renewable purchase obligation (RPO) and to meet the future requirements of state’s DISCOMs. A company can bid for a minimum capacity of 25 MW.

The last date for the bid submission is January 30, 2019. The technical bids will open on January 31, 2019. The date for the opening of the financial bid and reverse e-auction is February 6, 2019.

The GUVNL will enter into power purchase agreement (PPA) with the successful bidders for a period of 25 years from the scheduled commercial operation date of the project. The maximum tariff will be discovered through the e-bidding and e-reverse auction.

The bidders can avail fiscal incentives like accelerated depreciation, concessional customs and excise duties, tax holidays, benefits from trading of carbon credits, etc.

Projects under construction, which are not yet commissioned, or projects already commissioned but do not have any long-term PPA may be considered eligible  in case they are not already accepted under any other central or state schemes and do not have any obligations towards existing buyers.

Solar projects will also be allowed to be set up in the existing wind farm which is already connected to the grid.

To be eligible to bid for the project, the net-worth of the bidder should not be less than ₹10.7 million/MW (of the capacity quoted) on the date of financial year ending March 31, 2018.

Earlier, Aditya Birla Renewables quoted the lowest (L1) tariff of ₹2.44 (~$0.0338)/kWh in the auction held by GUVNL for 500 MW of grid-connected solar projects.

In April 2018, GUVNL had scrapped the auction for the development of  500 MW of grid-connected solar projects in the state. In February 2018, GUVNL had tendered 500 MW of grid-connected solar PV projects to be developed across Gujarat to meet its RPO.

Image credit: By Antalexion (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons