The REC Power Distribution Company Limited (RECPDCL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of REC Limited, has invited bids from empanelled owner’s engineers to provide project cost estimation and financial analysis services. The services are to help RECPDCL to participate in the competitive bidding process for interstate transmission system (ISTS)-connected solar projects in Karnataka.

The last date to submit the bids is January 29, 2021, and the bids will be opened on January 29, 2021. The pre-bid meeting will take place on January 25, 2021.

The tender is limited for agencies that are empaneled with RECPDCL as owner’s engineers. The owner’s engineers generally work as representatives of the project developers for a construction or engineering project. They help protect the owner’s interests by ensuring that the technical and building contractors are adhering to the project specification.

Interested bidders will not have to submit the earnest money deposit to participate in the tender. The successful bidder must submit a performance bank guarantee of 3% of the work order value to RECPDCL. The said deposit will be forfeited if the activities are not up to a satisfactory level.

The work would include preparing bills of quantity, estimation of project cost, and financial analysis of the project. Estimation of transmission lines with suitable voltage level, auxiliary consumption, transmission line losses, and route survey along with estimating the cost for power evacuation and carrying out the land site visit is also part of the scope of work.

The tentative bid capacity is 200 MW, but the capacity might change at the time of bidding.

As per the tender document, 20% of the payment will be made to the successful bidder on submitting the preliminary report after the site visit, and 50% of the payment on submission of the bid proposal. The remaining 20% will be paid after the acceptance of the bid proposal by RECPDCL, and 10% will be paid on completion of the e-reverse auction.

RECPDCL is joining a growing number of government entities including NTPC, SJVN who are participating in the tenders to develop solar projects.

In October last year, RECPDCL invited bids for the empanelment of owner’s engineer for solar power projects across India. The tender included ground-mounted, rooftop solar, floating solar, hybrid, and storage projects.

Earlier, RECPDCL announced that it was the lowest bidder in the Solar Energy Corporation of India’s (SECI) e-reverse auction. RECPDCL quoted ₹2.58 ($0.035)/kWh for setting up 10 MW of solar projects at Bagru in the Jaipur district of Rajasthan.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, RECPDCL has so far floated nearly 14.55 MW of solar tenders.