National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)’s 2 GW interstate transmission system (ISTS)-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) tender has been oversubscribed by over three times. Bids aggregating 6,200 MW have been submitted in response to the tender.

An executive from a large developer confirmed the opening of technical bids by NTPC to Mercom. The executive said that SBG Cleantech bid for the entire capacity tendered, 2,000 MW. ACME Solar bid for 600 MW. ReNew, Adani and Shapoorji Pallonji bid for 500 MW each. Sprng Energy bid for 300 MW.

Avaada and Azure bid for 300 MW each. Tata Power, Alfanar and Mahindra bid for 250 MW each. Aditya Birla and Hero Future Energies bid for 200 MW each, Orange Renewables bid for 50 MW. In all, 14 bidders have shown interest in this tender.

NTPC had tendered the capacity in March 2018. Later, Indian solar project developers complained to the MNRE that the maximum allowable capacity to be bid for in this tender was too large. The domestic developers reasoned, “Such a large bid size will prohibit some of the serious players based on financial criteria such as net worth requirement, turnover requirement, line of credit etc. Restricted competition may not provide the desired tariff levels.”

According to Mercom Solar Tender Tracker, over 30 GW of solar projects have been tendered in the first half of calendar year.

Image credit: By Pacific Southwest Region from Sacramento, [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons