Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has invited bids for the annual operation and maintenance (O&M) of distributed solar systems of 1.001 MW capacity installed at the Paradip refinery and township in Odisha.

The duration of the contract will be one year from the site handover. It may be extended for another year on the same rates and terms at the sole discretion of IOCL.

The last date to submit the bids is June 7, 2022. Bids will be opened the following day.

Bidders are not required to pay any earnest money deposit.

Bidders should have completed three similar works, each costing not less than ₹392,000 (~$5,056), or two similar works, each costing not less than ₹522,000 (~$6,733), or one similar work of value not less than ₹653,000 (~$8,423) during the last five years.

They should have experience in O&M of a minimum 1 MW capacity distributed solar power project at a single location during the last ten years in the oil and gas, petrochemicals, power, or steel industries.

The annual turnover of the bidders should be at least ₹783,000 (~$10,100) during any one of the last three financial years.

IOCL has specified that 25% of the tendered quantity had been earmarked for micro and small enterprise (MSE) suppliers. Of this quantity, 4% has been allocated for MSEs owned by Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe entrepreneurs, and 3% for MSEs owned by women entrepreneurs.

If the MSE vendor quotes within the price band of L1+15%, the vendor will be allowed to supply 25% of the requirement subject to acceptance of the L1 price.

Recently, IOCL invited bids for providing consultancy services to set up a 2.25 MW solar project at its LPG bottling plant in Madhya Pradesh.

The company had invited bids for the engineering, procurement, and construction of a 1.2 MW grid-connected captive solar project with a net metering facility at its LPG bottling plant at Sanand in Gujarat.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, IOCL has so far floated tenders for 47 MW of solar projects.