Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL)’s 500 MW grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) tender has been oversubscribed by almost four times. Technical bids aggregating 1,925 MW have been submitted against the tendered capacity of 500 MW.

According to a bidder who participated in the technical round, a total of 13 participants have submitted the bids. The participants are: Orange (30 MW), Eden (70 MW), Mahindra (200 MW), UPC Solar (50 MW), Avaada (300 MW, Fortum (50 MW), Adani (200 MW), Aditya Birla (250 MW), Feyman (100 MW), GSECL (75 MW), Kosol (50 MW), Azure (500 MW) and Tata  (50 MW).

The participation is huge considering GUVNL only recently cancelled a concluded solar PV auction.

When contacted, Ravi Khanna, the CEO of Aditya Birla told Mercom, “Right now, just the technical bids have been submitted. This is the same capacity for which auction had been conducted and later GUVNL had cancelled it.”

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 renewable purchase obligation (RPO).

In March 2018, Kalthia Engineering and Construction emerged as the lowest (L1) bidder by quoting a tariff of ₹2.98 (~$0.046)/kWh to develop 50 MW of solar PV projects.

After the auction, Mercom had reported, “The L1 tariff quoted in this GUVNL auction is ₹0.33 (~$0.005)/kWh higher than the L1 tariff of ₹2.65 (~$0.0413)/kWh quoted by GRT Jewellers India Private Limited in the previous 500 MW auction held by GUVNL.”

However, even by the first week of April 2018, the individual project capacities had not been awarded as higher tariffs were under review by the GUVNL board of directors.

GUVNL’s reasoning behind cancellation of the auction and retendering the capacity was the huge gap between tariffs quoted in successive GUVNL solar auctions. Tariffs quoted in this auction were way more than that quoted in the GUVNL 500 MW solar auction held last year.

Mercom recently analysed a few recent auction cancellations and how they are setting a bad precedent for the solar industry.

Image credit: UPC Renewables