The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) had invited bids to procure power from 500 MW of interstate or intrastate grid-connected solar projects on a long-term basis.

The last date to submit the bids is June 4, 2021, and bids will be opened on June 8.

Interested bidders will have to submit an amount of ₹400,000 (~$5,414)/MW as the earnest money deposit.

The successful bidders will have to furnish ₹800,000 (~$10,829)/MW as a performance bank guarantee with a validity period of seven months.

MSEDCL will enter into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the selected bidders to purchase solar power for 25 years from the scheduled commercial operation date in the case of proposed or new solar projects. For existing projects, the time frame would be 25 years from the date of execution of the PPA.

As per the tender document, only commercially established and operational technologies must be used for the projects to curtail the technology risks and ensure the projects’ timely commissioning.

Projects under construction, those not yet commissioned, and those already commissioned but without any long-term PPA with any agency will be considered.

The bidder will also have to ensure that the technology adopted is commercially established and the modules are enlisted in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s (MNRE) ‘Approved List of Models and Manufacturers’ issued in March.

The bidder should submit the bid considering the impact of the imposition of the basic customs duty on solar cells and modules as per the MNRE notification.

The bidder’s net worth for the last financial year should not be less than ₹5.5 million (~$74,450)/MW of the capacity quoted. The minimum annual turnover of the bidder should be ₹2.5 million (~$33,841)/MW of the quoted capacity during the last financial year.

In the form of profit before depreciation, interest, and taxes, the internal resource generation capacity of the bidder should be at least ₹1 million (~$13,536)/MW of the quoted capacity as of the last date of the previous financial year.

As per the tender document, the bidder should also have an approval letter from the lending institutions, committing a line of credit for a minimum amount of ₹1.25 million (~$16,920)/MW of the quoted capacity to meet the working capital requirement of the project.

The project should be designed to deliver energy at the delivery point, and the responsibility of getting the grid connectivity with the state transmission utility will entirely be of the successful bidder.

In May last year, the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission approved a tariff of ₹2.90 (~$0.04)/kWh for the long-term procurement of 350 MW of solar power by MSEDCL.

Earlier, MSEDCL’s tender for the long-term procurement of power from 500 MW of intra-state grid-connected solar power projects (Phase – V) was undersubscribed. The tender had received bids amounting to 350 MW against the 500 MW tender. Avaada Energy and Tata Power had quoted for 250 MW and 100 MW, respectively. MSEDCL had issued a request for selection for the long-term procurement of power from 500 MW of intra-state grid-connected solar power projects (Phase – V) in December 2019.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, MSEDCL has so far floated tenders for 11.5 GW of solar projects.