The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has tendered a total of 2,750 MW of grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) projects to be developed across the country.

NTPC has tendered 750 MW of grid-connected solar PV to be developed in the Ananthapuramu Ultra Mega Solar Park in Andhra Pradesh. The bid-submission deadline is April 12, 2018.

This is a global tender and a single bidder must bid for a minimum of 250 MW of grid-connected solar PV project.

“A single bidder can choose to bid for the entire 750 MW,” an NTPC official told Mercom.

In another tender, NTPC has tendered 2,000 MW of grid-connected solar PV to be developed across the country. The bid-submission deadline is April 23, 2018.

This is also a global tender and a single bidder must bid for a minimum of 50 MW of grid-connected solar PV. For this tender too, a bidder can bid for the entire capacity tendered.

“The 2 GW of solar projects will be connected to the Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS)”, added the NTPC official.

Under both the tenders issued by NTPC, the projects will be developed on a build own operate basis, and the NTPC will enter Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with the successful bidders for a period of 25 years.

There is no upper tariff ceiling for the capacities tendered and the guideline issued by Ministry of Power for competitive bidding will apply to both of them, the official added.

In February 2018, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) had also tendered 3 GW of ISTS-connected solar PV projects to be developed across India to avail the benefits of ISTS waiver.

According to the solar tender trajectory issued by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), 6 GW of solar is supposed to be tendered in March 2018. With these two tenders, the NTPC has tendered almost half the capacity earmarked for the ongoing month.

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