The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has invited bidders to enlist for inverter-inverter transformer package to develop solar power projects for NTPC.

The scope of work includes supply, type testing, supervision of commissioning and testing of the inverter, transformer among others.

To be eligible to apply, a bidder should have designed, manufactured, and supplied grid-connected solar inverter transformer of 11 kW or higher voltage of cumulative capacity of 40 MVA or above, where a single project is of 10 MVA or higher.

The average annual turnover of the bidder should not be less than ₹160 million (~$ 2.25 million) in the last three financial years.

Earlier this month, NTPC invited applications for the enlistment of engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) bidders to develop solar power projects. Recently, NTPC has also asked online applications from bidders to enlist for its wind energy projects in India.

The inverter suppliers will be allowed self-certification without submitting samples to test labs as the series guidelines for submitting samples to test labs are currently under preparation.

The relaxed requirements are incumbent upon the fact that inverter suppliers should have a valid IEC test reports from international test labs corresponding to Indian standards.

In January of 2019, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) extended the deadline for BIS certification of solar inverters by six months. The new deadline is June 30, 2019.

Recently, Mercom reported that power distribution companies (DISCOMs) in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka owe NTPC ₹58.38 billion (~$814.99 million) in outstanding power bills (both conventional and solar). A total amount of ₹18.84 billion (~$262.6 million) is due to be paid by DISCOMs to NTPC for solar power supplied under the National Solar Mission (NSM).