NTPC Limited has invited bids from engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractors with land for the development of up to 1,070 MW of solar projects in Rajasthan.

The last date for the submission of bids is September 17, 2020. Interested bidders are expected to pay a bid security amount ranging between ₹20 million (~$268,118) and ₹500 million (~$6.7 million) depending on the capacity they quote. The details are as follows:

The scope of work includes the design, engineering, manufacturing, supply, installation, and commissioning of the grid-connected solar projects on a turnkey basis. Successful bidders are also expected to provide three years of operations and maintenance services for the solar projects, power evacuation system, and telemetry up to the interconnecting state transmission utility (STU) substation.

The tender documents stated that the cells and modules used in the project must be from the open category and that projects are to be connected with substations of at least 132 kV. Each project must be at least 50 MW in capacity or higher in multiples of ten.

To participate in the competitive bidding process, bidders must have set up at least 40 MW of projects (either as an EPC contractor or as a developer), of which at least one project was larger than 10 MW in capacity. The reference plant must have been in successful operation for at least six months before the date of the techno-commercial bid opening.

Alternatively, the bidder can also be a developer or an EPC contractor in the fields of power, steel, oil and gas, petrochemical, fertilizer, cement, coal, or any other process industry with a value of ₹2.1 billion (~$28.2 million) over the last ten years.

Applicants must also have had an average annual turnover of at least ₹2.1 billion (~$28.2 million) in the last three financial years. They are also expected to have a net worth not less than 100% of their paid-up share capital as on the last day of the preceding financial year.

The previous EPC tender that NTPC announced was in December 2019 for 500 MW of grid-connected solar projects in Maharashtra.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tracker, NTPC has 875 MW of large-scale solar projects in operation, with about 2.3 GW of capacity currently under development.

Image credit: Government of Rajasthan Energy Portal