The National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) is on the lookout for engineering procurement construction (EPC) contractors to set up 1 GW of grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) projects under Phase-II Tranche-I of the Central Public Sector Undertaking (CPSU) program.

The contractors will have to source all the materials for the project construction domestically since this tender has been floated under the domestic content requirement (DCR) category. The bid submission deadline is July 15, 2019.

A single bidder must bid for a minimum of 50 MW and can bid for a maximum of 300 MW. The grid-connected solar PV projects will be developed on a turnkey basis. The scope of work includes the design, engineering, manufacturing, supply, packing, and forwarding, transportation, unloading, storage, installation, and commissioning of the solar PV projects.

Successful bidders will provide operation and maintenance services for three years. Bidders bidding for 50 MW must provide a bid security of ₹20 million (~$287,600), for 60 MW to 100 MW, they must provide ₹50 million (~$718,900 million), for 110 MW to 200 MW, the bidders must provide ₹100 million (~$1.44 million), and lastly, for 210 MW to 300 MW, they have been asked to provide ₹200 million (~$2.88 million) as the bid security.

The tender has been issued as the second part of NTPC’s plan for the construction of these solar PV projects. Towards the beginning of June 2019, NTPC had issued a tender inviting government entities to procure power from 1 GW of solar projects.

The CPSU program was proposed by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE). Under this, the government producers will get four years: 2019-2020 to 2022-23, to set up 12,000 MW of solar power projects across the country. Under the program, the usage charges should not exceed ₹3.50 (~$0.050)/kWh and will be exclusive of any other third-party charge such as wheeling, transmission charges and losses, and the likes.

Recently, the President of India accorded his approval to implement phase-II of the CPSU program to set up 12,000 MW of grid-connected solar power projects for self-use or use by government entities.

With this announcement, 3 GW of solar PV projects has been tendered under the CPSU program’s second phase. In March 2019, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) had issued a Request for Selection (RfS) for the setting up of 2,000 MW of grid-connected solar PV power projects under tranche-I of CPSU program phase-II.