The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has invited bids from eligible bidders for the purchase of power from existing solar power projects of a cumulative capacity up to 100 MW for a period of two months.

The last date for the submission of bids is December 26, 2019, and the financial bid opening has been scheduled for December 30, 2019. The reverse auction for the purchase of solar power will begin from December 30, 2019.

The eligibility criteria for this tender state that an interested bidder should be a company or a consortium. As per the tender document, distribution licensees or power traders are also eligible to participate in this tender. Also, the solar project should be commissioned as on the last date of the submission of bids.

The NTPC has also invited bids to develop 923 MW of solar projects under the second phase of the central public sector undertaking (CPSU) program. The last date for the submission of bids is January 3, 2020, and a pre-bid meeting will be held on December 20, 2019.

Recently, NTPC also invited bids for the development of grid-connected solar projects up to a capacity of 1,000 MW. The tender had been floated under the Develop Build Demonstrate Transfer (DBDT) program. The scope of work for the project included the design, engineering, manufacturing, supply, and commissioning of a capacity ranging between 50 MW to 300 MW (in multiples of 10 MW) on a turnkey basis.

However, the NTPC had to later extend the bid submission deadline for this tender as it failed to generate the desired response from the developers. Many of NTPC’s tenders in the recent past have had multiple deadline extensions.