The Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) has reissued its tender for 97.5 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar systems for government buildings in various states and union territories. The projects can be developed under CAPEX (capital expenses) or RESCO (renewable energy service company) model.

The revised bid submission deadline is September 30, 2019. The techno-commercial bids will be opened on October 1, 2019.

This tender saw multiple deadline extensions in the absence of adequate bidder participation.

The request for selection (RfS) was first issued in February this year with a bid submission deadline of March 27, 2019. Any response received by SECI under the previous tender issued on February 26, 2019, will not be considered in this RfS. New responses need to be submitted by the interested bidders.

Another reason for the reissued tender is that the updates were delayed due to the change of portal from TCIL (Telecommunications Consultants India) to the Bharat tender portal. Moreover, recently, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) revised the benchmark costs for rooftop projects, which might be another reason to reissue the tender in line with the new costs.

The total capacity of 97.5 MW has been divided into three categories. The first category is for 10 MW capacity based on CAPEX Model, second is for 85 MW based on RESCO Model, and the third category is for 2.5 MW capacity based on CAPEX model.

Recently, SECI also changed and reissued the manufacturing linked solar tender which it had initially floated in January 2019. In the revised version, SECI tendered 6 GW of inter-state transmission system (ISTS)-connected solar projects linked with 2 GW of solar manufacturing component.

Adding to the ongoing trend of tender extensions, SECI recently announced bid submission deadline extensions for three of its solar tenders.