The Indian Oil Corporation of India (IOCL) has invited bids for setting up a 2.75 MW grid-connected ground-mounted solar power project at the Indian Oil LPG bottling plant in Trichy, Tamil Nadu. The scope of work includes the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of the 2.75 MW grid-connected captive solar power project with 1,000m 11 kV underground power evacuation infrastructure inside the IOCL’s LPG unit in Trichy. It will also include the construction of a 3.5 km 11 kV overhead power evacuation infrastructure on a turnkey basis. The contract will also include operation and Maintenance (O&M) for five years.

The part A of the project will include comprehensive maintenance of the solar power project for one year from the date of the commissioning of the project.

For part B of the project, the successful bidder will have to take care of the maintenance activities of the project and the evacuation infrastructure for four years from the date of completion of the work mentioned in part A.

The timeline for the completion of part A of the project has been set at 21 months, which includes nine months for the commissioning of the project. The period of completion of part B of the project has been set at 48 months.

The last date for the submission of bids has been fixed as September 22, 2020, and the pre-bid meeting will take place on September 15, 2020.

Interested bidders will have to submit an amount of ₹960,000 (~$13,066) as earnest money deposit (EMD).

As per the tender document, for the solar modules, inverters, cables, transformers, switchgear, and batteries, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) should have a manufacturing unit with a testing facility in India.

Only poly and monocrystalline silicon modules will be used for the project, and the peak power rating of the module should not be less than 300W. Also, the efficiency of the solar modules should not be less than 17% under standard testing conditions.

Recently, IOCL invited bids for empanelling vendors or lump-sum turnkey contractors for solar projects at its retail outlets under its Punjab state office. The states and union territories included under the Punjab state office of the IOCL include Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Earlier, IOCL had floated tenders for 580 kW of grid-connected rooftop captive solar power projects at its terminals in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. One was for a 180 kW project at the Indian Oil terminal at Sankari, Tamil Nadu, and the other was for a 400 kW project at the Indian Oil grease plant in Vashi district, Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Image credit: Nikhil B / CC BY