The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) has invited bids to procure 1,250 MW of solar power from projects developed in various districts of Maharashtra.

The last date to submit the bids is November 25, 2021. The bids will be opened on the same day. The pre-bid meeting will take place on November 11.

The ceiling tariff for the tender has been set at ₹3.10 (~$0.041)/kWh.

Bidders will have to submit an amount of ₹100,000 (~$1,334)/MW of the quoted capacity as an earnest money deposit. The successful bidder will have to furnish an amount of ₹500,000 (~$6,672)/MW of the quoted capacity as a performance bank guarantee within 30 days from the issuance of the letter of award.

The minimum individual capacity to be developed is 2 MW and the maximum 10 MW. The project has to be commissioned within 12 months from the date of the issuance of the letter of award.

MSEDCL will enter into power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the selected bidders for 25 years from the commercial operation date of the solar power projects.

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

Projects under construction and projects already commissioned but do not have any long-term PPA with any agency will be eligible to participate in the tender.

At the end of the last financial year, the bidder’s net worth should not be less than ₹5.5 million (~$73,395)/MW of the quoted capacity. In the case of foreign companies, the applicable financial year will be as per the applicable laws of the country of incorporation.

The bidder’s minimum annual turnover should be ₹2.5 million (~$33,361)/MW of the quoted capacity during the previous financial year. The bidder should have internal resource generation capability in the form of profit before depreciation, interest, and taxes (PBDIT) for a minimum of ₹1 million (~$13,344)/MW of the quoted capacity on the last day of the previous financial year.

The bidder should have in-principle approval from the lending institution committing a line of credit for a minimum of ₹1.25 million (~$16,680)/MW of the quoted capacity for meeting the work capital requirement of the project.

The project should be designed to deliver energy at the 11/22 kV level substation of MSEDCL. The responsibility of getting the grid connectivity with MSEDCL would entirely be of the successful bidder.

MSEDCL has stated that the declared capacity utilization factor (CUF) should in no case be less than 19% over a year.

In July this year, ACME Solar Holdings and ReNew Solar Power were declared the winners in  MSEDCL’s auction to procure power from 500 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects (Phase VI) on a long-term basis.

Earlier, MSEDCL had invited bids to procure 1,300 MW solar power from projects to be connected at the distribution network (11/22 kV) in 29 districts in Maharashtra. MSEDCL had set a ceiling tariff of ₹3.05 (~$0.041)/kWh for these projects.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, MSEDCL has floated 13.48 GW of solar tenders as of March 2021.