MOIL Limited, a state-owned manganese-ore mining company, headquartered in Nagpur, has floated a tender seeking the services of qualified coordinating agencies (QCAs) for its solar and wind power farms.

The scope of work includes providing QCA services such as power forecasting, scheduling, and deviation settlement of energy generated from its 5 MW solar power project at Nagpur, Maharashtra (Lot-1), and its 15.2 MW wind energy farm at Ratedi Hills, Madhya Pradesh (Lot-2).

Interested bidders are expected to make an earnest money deposit of ₹28,000 (~$381). The last date for submission of bids is October 16, 2020. The work is estimated to cost ₹900,000 (~$12,241) along with Goods and Services Tax (GST) for Lot -1 and ₹478,800 (~$6,512) with GST for Lot – 2.

Successful bidders are also expected to provide billing services, real-time analytics dashboard facilities, and any other services the state load despatch center (SLDC) may require for these projects. They are expected to provide these services for 36 months from the date of commencement as per the work order.

To be eligible to place bids, applicants must have had an average annual turnover of at least two times the value of the tender over the last three years. They are also expected to provide a net worth certificate reflecting a positive net worth of at least ₹15 million (~$204,026). The tender documents said that bidders must be financially strong enough to handle any potential penalties due to deviation charges.

Bidders must also have at least one year’s experience in the field for wind or solar power scheduling and forecasting in the last seven years.

The appointed of QCAs are being mandated by the state electricity regulators. In Madhya Pradesh, the regulator mandated that if wind and solar generators fail to appoint a common QCA within two months from the date of issue of notice by the state load despatch center, then the concerned licensee will be asked to disconnect the defaulting generators. Previously, the regulations stated that the wind and solar generators must appoint a common QCA within one month.On another note, the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission has exempted renewable energy QCAs for meter reading, data collection, and communication from paying scheduling and forecasting charges. However, the initial corpus that QCAs must deposit remained unchanged.