REC Power Development and Consultancy (RECPDCL), a fully-owned subsidiary of REC, has invited bids to establish an Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) for the evacuation of hydropower from Shongtong Karcham (450 MW) and Tidong (150 MW) hydroelectric projects (HEP) in Himachal Pradesh.

The last date for the submission of bids is November 11, 2023. Bids will be opened the same day.

Bidders must pay a non-refundable bid document fee of ₹500,000 (~$7,000) plus an 18% GST.

The selected bidder must provide a performance bank guarantee amounting to ₹3.03 billion (~$3.6 million) within ten days of receiving the Letter of Intent.

Phase I of the project involving Tidong HEP is scheduled for July 1, 2026, while Phase II with Shongtong HEP is set for July 31, 2026.

The selected contractor must guarantee that the design, construction, and testing of all project equipment, facilities, components, and systems adhere to the terms outlined in the transmission service agreement and comply with the relevant regulations, rules, orders, and guidelines issued by the Central Government.

The contractor will be responsible for acquiring the transmission license from the Commission.

The transmission charges should be paid by the designated ISTS customers through the Central Transmission Utility (CTU) per the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (CERC) “Sharing of Inter-State Transmission Charges and Losses” Regulations.

Bidders should have experience developing infrastructure projects in the last five years with a total capital expenditure of at least ₹6.06 billion (~$72.8 million). However, the capital expenditure for each project should not be less than ₹1.21 billion (~$15.3 million).

Alternatively, bidders should have experience in the construction of infrastructure projects. The technically evaluated entity should have received aggregate payments of not less than ₹6.06 billion (~$72.8 million) from their client(s) for construction works that were fully completed during the last five financial years.

However, the payment received from each project should not be less than ₹1.21 billion (~$15.3 million).

Bidders’ net worth should be not less than ₹2.5 billion (~$30 million) in any of the last three financial years.

Recently, RECPDCL) floated two tenders to establish an inter-state transmission system to evacuate a cumulative 11 GW of power from renewable energy zones in Rajasthan under Phase – IV.

In May, REC listed its recently issued green bonds, which raised $750 million under its global medium-term $7 billion program at the GIFT International Financial Services Centre Stock Exchanges in Gandhinagar.