The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has invited bids for solar module package for the development of Anta solar project located at Baran district in Rajasthan.

Elaborating on this tender for module package, an NTPC official told Mercom, “Module package bid is for the supply of solar modules. Normally, we invited bid for solar projects EPC services while in this case we are procuring solar modules separately from EPC contract bids. So, we are inviting two bids – one of solar module supply and the other for EPC services.”

The scope of work includes manufacturing, supply, packing and forwarding, transportation, unloading storage, installation, and commissioning of solar PV modules.

The specification for the solar PV modules given is crystalline with a minimum 300Wp nominal rating and thin film based with a minimum 112.5Wp nominal rating.

The last date for the submission of techno-commercial bids is October 4, 2018. The techno-commercial bid will open on October 5, 2018. The date for reverse auction will be decided later by the NTPC.

Bid security amount is ₹50 million (~$0.07 million) and a bidder must have manufactured and supplied solar PV modules of cumulative capacity of 50 MWp. The average annual turnover of a bidder should not be less than ₹2,370 million (~$33.15 million) during the last three financial years.

Solar PV cells and modules for this package can be sourced from anywhere in the world.

Recently,  SECI reduced the capacity of the manufacturing tender. In May 2018, it had tendered 5 GW of manufacturing capacity to be set up across the country. The capacity has now been reduced to 3 GW. The goal of the tender was to strengthen the domestic solar supply chain by incentivising domestic manufacturing capacity establishment by awarding PPAs to build projects.

However, NTPC’s tender allows the sourcing of modules from anywhere in the world.

Earlier,  National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) auctioned 2 GW of interstate transmission system (ISTS)-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in which ACME Solar quoted the lowest (L1) tariff of ₹ 2.59 (~$0.0372)/kWh to develop 600 MW. Shapoorji Pallonji and Azure Power matched the L1 tariff to develop 500 MW and 300 MW respectively.

Image credit: MMEPL

Nitin is a staff reporter at Mercomindia.com and writes on renewable energy and related sectors. Prior to Mercom, Nitin has worked for CNN IBN, India News, Agricultural Spectrum and Bureaucracy Today. He received his bachelor’s degree in Journalism & Communication from Manipal Institute of Communication at Manipal University and Master’s degree in International Relations from Jindal School of International Affairs. More articles from Nitin Kabeer