Punjab State Power Corporation (PSPCL) has invited bids to purchase 500 MW of power from grid-connected ground-mount or floating solar projects located in Punjab.

The last date to submit the bids online is September 12, 2023. Bids will be opened on September 14.

The ceiling tariff for the tender has been set as ₹2.75 (~$0.033)/kWh.

Bidders must submit ₹300,000 (~$3,632) plus 18% GST as a bid processing fee and ₹400,000 (~$4,843)/MW of the quoted capacity as an earnest money deposit.

Bidders must furnish an amount equivalent to ₹1.18 million (~$14,286)/MW of the allotted capacity as a performance bank guarantee after receiving the letter of intent and before signing the power purchase agreement (PPA).

The minimum capacity a bidder can submit an offer for is 2 MW, and the cumulative capacity offered must not exceed 500 MW.

The successful bidders will be required to sign a 25-year PPA with PSPCL within 30 days of receiving the letter of intent.

The project must be commissioned within 18 months of signing the PPA.

Projects under construction, projects which are not yet commissioned, and projects already commissioned but do not have any long-term committed PPA with any agency and selling power on a short-term basis will be considered if these projects are not already accepted under any other central or state programs and do not have any obligation towards existing buyers.

To be eligible, the net worth of bidders as of the last day of the previous financial year should not be less than ₹10 million (~$121,066)/MW of the quoted capacity.

Also, their minimum annual turnover should be ₹5 million (~$60,533)/MW of the quoted capacity during the previous financial year.

The internal resource generation capability in the form of Profit before Depreciation, Interest, and Taxes should be at least ₹1 million (~$12,107)/MW of the quoted capacity as of the last day of the previous financial year.

Additionally, the bidders should have an in-principle approval letter from the lending institution committing a line of credit for a minimum amount of ₹1.25 million (~$15,133)/MW of the quoted capacity toward meeting the working capital requirement of the project.

The responsibility of getting the grid connectivity and long-term access from PSPCL and the Punjab State Transmission Corporation, as applicable, will entirely be of the successful bidder.

The declared annual capacity utilization factor should, in no case, be less than 19%.

Only commercially established and operational technologies can be used to minimize the technology risk and to achieve the timely commissioning of the projects.

PSPCL has mandated the use of solar modules from the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers issued by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

In June this year, PSPCL invited bids to procure power from 200 MW solar projects with a minimum capacity of 5 MW each in Punjab through e-bidding under the Swiss Challenge method.

Earlier, PSPCL had issued a request for selection to procure power from 1 GW of solar projects with a minimum capacity of 5 MW located in Punjab through a long-term tariff-based competitive bidding process.

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