REMC Limited, a joint venture of Indian Railways and RITES, on behalf of Indian Railways, has invited bids to procure 1 GW of round-the-clock (RTC) power from grid-connected renewable power projects with or without storage across India for 25 years.

The projects will be developed on a build, own, and operate basis.

The last date to submit the bids online is August 16, 2022. Bids will be opened on August 18.

Bidders must submit an amount equivalent to ₹980,000 (~$12,279)/MW as an earnest money deposit.

The successful bidder should furnish a performance bank guarantee for a value of ₹2 million (~$25,060)/MW to the buying entity at least seven working days before the power purchase agreement (PPA) signing.

The successful bidder must pay ₹100,000 (~$1,251) / MW plus 18% goods and service tax (GST) to REMCL towards administrative overheads, coordination with state authorities and others, Buying Entity/state transmission utility / central transmission utility, pre-commissioning and commissioning expense.

Under the tender, the minimum bid capacity has been set as 250 MW.

The annual availability of the project for the first four years should be 75%, and it should be 85% for the rest of the contract years. For time-block-wise availability, the minimum project availability must be 50% for the entire contract tenure.

In case of a shortfall in power supplied, the developer will have to pay 200% of the applicable tariff for that contract year for the shortfall energy calculated on an annual or time block basis.

The supply will also include energy offered from the storage system, provided renewable sources are used to store energy in the storage system.

The tariff will be mutually decided between the parties. The tariff quoted for each year will be levelized based on the discounting factor of 8.09 %.

Only commercially established and operational technologies should be used to minimize the technology risk and achieve the projects’ timely commissioning.

The energy storage system (ESS), if any, may be constituted as part of the project or tied up with a third party separately by the developer. The tender clarifies that ESS power supplied for this project should be from renewable sources.

Already commissioned projects will not be considered under this tender. However, projects under construction or projects not yet commissioned will be considered in case these projects are not already accepted under any other central or state programs.

The renewable generation components and the ESS installed may be located anywhere – may be co-located or located at different locations. The different components of RTC power, i.e., solar, wind, hydro, etc., can be connected with the interstate transmission system (ISTS) network at different ISTS substations.

The net worth of the bidder must be equal to or greater than ₹30 million (~$375,906)/MW during the previous financial year, i.e., immediately preceding the bid submission date.

The minimum annual turnover of the bidder should be at least ₹48 million (~$601,450)/MW during the last financial year.

The internal resource generation capability of the bidder, in the form of profit before depreciation, interest, taxes, and amortization (PBDITA), should be at least ₹9.6 million (~$120,290)/MW during the previous financial year.

Also, the bidder should have an in-principal sanction letter from the lending institutions committing a Line of Credit for a minimum amount of ₹12 million (~$150,362)/MW toward meeting the working capital requirement of the project.

The renewable project developer should be entirely responsible for acquiring the land required for the project.

Any bidder from a country that shares a land border with India will be eligible to bid in this tender only if the bidder is registered with the competent authority.

The solar modules to be used for the projects should be from the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) as issued by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). Also, wind turbines listed in the Revised List of Models and Manufacturers (RLMM) should be used for the projects.

Recently, REMCL invited bids to set up 1.55 GW of ground-mounted solar power projects near the traction substations at 25 kV connectivity across India. The projects will be developed on a build, own, and operate basis.

Earlier, REMCL had invited bids to select solar project developers to set up 50 MW of ground-mounted solar projects on private owners or farmers’ land near the traction substations at 25 kV connectivity in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

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