The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) has invited bids for 500 MW of distributed solar projects (0.5 MW to 2 MW) under Component A of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM KUSUM) program.

The solar power generator will be responsible for the design, finance, procurement of land, engineering, procurement, construction, operation, and maintenance of the project per the provisions of the power purchase agreement between the generator and MSEDCL.

Under Component A of the program, the government has put a target to set up 10 GW of decentralized ground-mounted grid-connected solar projects of individual project size of up to 2 MW.

The estimated cost of the project is ₹17.5 billion (~$240.33 million).

The last date to submit the bids is June 28, 2021, and bids will be opened on the same day. The pre-bid meeting will take place on June 8.

The ceiling tariff for the project has been set as ₹3.05 (~$0.042)/kWh.

Interested bidders will have to submit an amount of ₹100,000 (~$1,373)/MW as the earnest money deposit to participate in the bidding process. The successful bidder will have to submit an amount of ₹500,000 (~$6,866)/MW as a performance bank guarantee within 30 days from the date of the issuance of the letter of award.

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

As per the tender documents, the projects under construction, not yet commissioned, and already commissioned but lacking any long-term power purchase agreement with any agency and selling power on a short-term or merchant-plant basis will be eligible to participate in the tender.

The minimum individual capacity to be developed will be 0.5 MW, while the maximum capacity will be 2 MW.

The interested parties could participate in the bidding process as an individual or group of farmers, cooperatives, panchayats, farmer producer organizations, or water user organizations setting up the project on their lands. If the bidders concerned fail to arrange the equity needed to set up the projects, they may opt to erect the project through a developer by signing a land lease agreement. In such a case, the landowner will get lease rent on mutually agreed terms and conditions.

If a developer sets up the project on leased land, his net worth should not be less than ₹10 million (~$135,812)/MW of the quoted capacity. The bidder’s minimum annual turnover for the last financial year should be ₹2.5 million (~$34,332)/MW, and the minimum internal resource generation capability, in the form of profit before depreciation, interest, and taxes should be ₹1 million (~$13,733)/MW of the quoted capacity.

To be eligible to participate in the bidding process, the bidder should have an approval letter from the lending institution committing a line of credit for a minimum of ₹1.25 million (~$17,166)/MW of the quoted capacity towards meeting the working capital requirement of the project.

The entire responsibility of getting the grid connectivity with MSEDCL will be on the successful bidder. The bidder securing the deal can arrange connectivity through a dedicated line or sharing of a line. The dedicated line may be constructed by the winning bidder or through any other agency. The successful bidder will bear the entire cost of transmission from the project up to the delivery point.

The declared capacity utilization factor should, in no case, be less than 15% over a year.

Recently, in another project under the KUSUM program, the Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam Limited invited bids to set up 270 MW of grid-connected solar power projects of capacity 500 kW to 2 MW under Component A of the program.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, tenders for 1.38 GW of solar projects have been floated in the country under Component-A of the PM KUSUM program by various organizations, including the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited, Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam Limited, and Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Limited, among others.