The renewable energy arm of Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has won the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the 200 MW project in Gujarat through an e-reverse auction conducted by NTPC limited.

In another auction, L&T won the rights in the e-reverse auction held by the Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited (GSECL) to construct a 210 MW grid-connected solar power project in the Jamnagar district of Gujarat.

NTPC had won the rights for the 200 MW project in the auction held by the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) in December last year. In the auction, the lowest tariff reached ₹1.99 (~$0.0270)/kWh, which was a paisa less than the Solar Energy Corporation of India’ previous record low tariff of ₹2 (~$0.027)/kWh discovered in its auction for 1,070 MW GW of grid-connected solar projects (Tranche III) in Rajasthan last November.

NTPC quoted the tariff of ₹1.99 (~$0.0270)/kWh for 200 MW, Torrent Power Limited for 100 MW, Al Jomaih Energy and Water Company Limited for 80 MW, and Aditya Renewables for 120 MW (under the bucket filling method), respectively. The EPC contract for the 200 MW won by NTPC in the GUVNL auction has been awarded to L&T.

For the 210 MW of grid-connected solar power project, GSECL had invited bids in September last year. According to sources, the contract is worth around ₹8.5 billion (~$116.19 million). Tata Power was the other bidder in this auction. The e-reverse auction process was conducted on January 22, 2021.

The scope of work involved the design, EPC of the grid-connected solar power project, and evacuation of power into the Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation’s (GETCO) 220 kV/66 kV substation. The time for the commissioning of the project has been set at 14 months from the date of issue of the Letter of Award (LoA).

In December last month, Tata Power Solar Systems Limited and Ashoka Buildcon Limited won 470 MW of solar projects in NTPC’s EPC auction for 1,070 MW of solar projects. Tata Power Solar was awarded 320 MW and Ashoka Buildcon 150 MW under the bucket-filling method. Tata had placed bids for 470 MW while L&T and Jakson Limited had also bid for 300 MW and 100 MW of projects, respectively, but were not awarded any capacity.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, Gujarat has 2,518 MW of solar projects in operation and 2,928 MW under development as of December 2020.