Rajasthan Urja Vikas Nigam (RUVNL) has invited bids to set up 1,200 MW of solar power projects anywhere in India with a committed supply for at least six hours during the peak demand periods from an energy storage system.

The last date to submit the bids is April 17, 2023. Bids will be opened on April 20.

Bidders must submit ₹500,000 (~$6,071) plus 18% GST as a bid processing fee for the offered capacity less than 100 MW, and for ≥100 MW, they will have to submit ₹1.5 million (~$18,212) plus 18% GST.

They must also furnish ₹1.2 million (~$14,569)/MW as an earnest money deposit. The successful bidder will have to furnish an amount equivalent to ₹1.8 million (~$21,854)/MW/project as a performance bank guarantee before signing the power purchase agreement.

RUVNL will utilize power from the projects under this tender to meet its renewable purchase obligation targets.

Projects already commissioned will not be considered under this tender. Projects under construction or projects which are not yet commissioned will, however, be considered only if they are not accepted under any other central or state programs or do not have tied-up capacity with other utilities.

For each project, the minimum capacity will be 50 MW. The total capacity of solar projects to be allocated to a bidder will be limited to 1,200 MW.

As part of the total energy supplied from the project, the developer should mandatorily supply energy corresponding to a maximum amount of 3 MWh per 1 MW of the contracted capacity daily during peak hours, i.e., from 6 AM to 10 AM and 6 PM to 10 PM.

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

The net worth of bidders should be at least ₹12.26 million (~$148,850)/MW of the quoted capacity as of the last day of the previous financial year.

The minimum annual turnover of bidders should be at least ₹11.08 million (~$134,523)/MW of the quoted capacity during the last financial year.

Bidders should have internal resource generation capability in the form of Profit Before Depreciation, Interest, and Taxes for a minimum of ₹2.22 million (~$26,953)/MW of the quoted capacity.

Additionally, they should have an in-principle approval letter from the lending institutions committing a Line of Credit for a minimum of ₹2.77 million (~$33,631)/MW of the quoted capacity toward meeting the working capital requirement of the project.

The project should be designed for interconnection with the interstate transmission system (ISTS). The responsibility of getting the ISTS connectivity will entirely be with the developer.

The developer should maintain an energy supply so as to achieve an annual supply corresponding to the capacity utilization factor (CUF) of not less than 90% of the declared value and not more than 120% of the declared CUF value during the PPA duration of 25 years.

Any bidder from a country that shares a land border with India will be eligible to bid on this tender.

The solar modules for the projects must be warranted for peak output wattage, which should not be less than 90% at the end of 10 years and 80% at the end of 25 years.

In January this year, RUVNL invited bids to set up 1,500 MW of ISTS-connected wind-solar hybrid power projects anywhere in India with required storage for distribution companies to have flexibility in the scheduling of power.

Earlier, RUVNL had invited bids to develop 1 GW of state transmission utility-connected solar power projects in the state.

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