The Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) has issued a Request for Selection (RfS) for setting up 4 MW of grid-connected floating solar projects. These solar projects will come with 2 MW of battery energy storage system (BESS).

The projects will be developed at Kalpong Dam in Diglipur, located in northern Andaman.

The projects will be developed on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis, and the last date for the submission of bids is February 13, 2020. The interested bidders must pay ₹5.4 million (~$76,243.9) as the earnest money deposit (EMD).

The maximum tariff payable to the developer has been set at ₹8 (~$0.11)/kWh for 25 years. This is inclusive of all statutory taxes, duties, levies, and cess applicable currently.

Interested bidders can submit a single bid for the project. The projects should be designed for interconnection with the nearest electricity department at the voltage level of 33 kV.

The selected bidder needs to declare the annual capacity utilization factor (CUF) that shouldn’t be less than 17%.

The project should achieve financial closure within a year from the effective date of the power purchase agreement (PPA). The timeline for the scheduled commissioning of the project is 18 months. In case of a delay in commissioning beyond 24 months, the total performance bank guarantee will be encashed by the agency.

If the project is transferred or sold to a third party during its tenure, the Andaman administration will retain full rights to operationalize the PPA with the third party, the tender states.

Under the RfS, SECI has proposed to promote only commercially established and operational technologies to minimize the technology risk and to achieve the timely commissioning of the project and expects the successful bidder to confirm the selection of technology at the time of financial closure.

The scope of work includes the design, engineering, manufacture, dispatch, transportation, and storage of all equipment and materials such as the adequate capacity of solar PV modules with suitable ratings. The solar modules must qualify for the latest edition of the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) qualification test or an equivalent by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) standards.

The net worth of the bidder should be at least ₹54 million (~$760,285), while the minimum annual turnover should be ₹48 million (~$677,723) during the previous financial year.

Last year, Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Limited (REIL), a public-sector enterprise, had floated a tender to set up 1.7 MW of solar projects with a battery energy storage system in Andaman and Nicobar islands.

In the recent past, there have been several tender announcements for floating solar projects across states and union territories. According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, over 400 MW of floating solar projects are currently under the development pipeline across India.

For instance, in February 2019, Mercom reported that SECI issued a tender for 20 MW of floating solar projects with 60 MW BESS on a turnkey basis in the union territory of Lakshadweep.

Previously, SECI had issued another tender for the utilization of water bodies in Tamil Nadu for the development of a 250 MW floating solar PV capacity.

Image credit: Jackson