The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), a leading public sector undertaking in the country, has tendered a 5 MW grid-connected solar project to be developed at its Tatipaka site, located in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

The scope of work includes the design, engineering, procurement and supply, construction and installation, commissioning, and operation and maintenance (O&M) of the project. An ONGC official informed Mercom that the O&M contract will be effective for 10 years.

The earnest money deposit required for the project has been fixed at ₹4.82 million (~$0.067 million).

The bid submission deadline is December 5, 2018. The bid will open on the same day.

Last year too, the ONGC had issued a similar tender for its Vagra site.

Recently, Mercom reported that ONGC commissioned a 10 MW solar project which will power its plants at Dhaej, Gandhar, and Hazira located in the state of Gujarat. The project is spread across 56 acres of land and segregated into eight blocks of 1.25 MW each.

Earlier, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), a subsidiary of ONGC, commissioned solar projects aggregating 6.063 MW within the MRPL refinery premises in Mangalore, Karnataka.

Of late, a host of public sector undertakings in the country have begun investing in solar energy.

In October 2018, the National thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) tendered a 2 MW grid connected solar PV multi-technology test bed at NTPC Energy Technology research Alliance (NETRA), under domestic competitive bidding. NETRA is located in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida region.

Recently, the Railways Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL), a joint venture of Indian Railways and RITES Limited, also invited bids for the setting up of 50 MWp solar project on railways land at Bhilai, Chhattisgarh under tariff based competitive bidding.

In March 2018, Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) India tendered 20 MW of grid-connected solar project with Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) to be developed on the island of Andaman & Nicobar.