The Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL), a flagship company under the Ministry of Steel, Government of India (GoI), has floated a tender to supply solar power through wheeling for its manufacturing unit in Mangalore.

The solar power will be purchased for KIOCL’s Pelletisation Complex and Pig Iron Complex located at Baikampady Industrial Area in Mangalore. The unit engaged in the business of manufacturing and exporting iron oxide pellets and the supply of pig iron for the domestic market.

The last date for the submission of bids is April 6, 2020. Interested bidders are expected to pay a sum of ₹5,000 (~$66) as the earnest money deposit (EMD).

The tender adds that after the opening of the price bid of technically qualified bidders, if the firm quoting the lowest tariff (L-1) withdraws from the tender, then the EMD will stand forfeited. As far as the pre-qualification criteria are concerned, the interested bidder should have the consent to wheel the energy and should have a wheeling and banking agreement with Mangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (MESCOM).

The applicable demand charges, cross-subsidy surcharge, electricity duty, and other applicable taxes will be paid by KIOCL directly to MESCOM.

The prospective bidder should be able to supply a maximum of 1.3 million units every month without any break for the year 2019-20 and should be able to wheel the energy from March or April 2020. According to the tender document, the contract period is for four months from the date of receiving the Letter of Intent (LoI).

Previously, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), a subsidiary of India’s state Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), commissioned solar projects aggregating 6.063 MW within the MRPL refinery premises in Mangalore, Karnataka. MRPL tendered the capacity in September 2017.

Also, last year, ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals (OMPL), a greenfield petrochemicals project promoted by ONGC and MRPL, had invited bids for a grid-interactive floating solar project of 2 MW capacity to be installed in its premises.

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