Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has issued clarifications on an expression of interest (EoI), it issued in October 2020 to empanel agencies to identify and implement business opportunities in the electric and transformative mobility space.

EoI was issued to help India achieve its national target to raise electric vehicles (EVs) to 30% by 2030 and the infrastructure to support them. SECI intends to select three to five agencies with experience in electric or transformative mobility or those with experience developing or scaling innovative technology for three years. Empanelled agencies would have to identify business opportunities and provide regular updates to SECI. Unless extended, empanelment would be for three years.

The prospective bidders had raised queries regarding the scope of the EoI. Some of the important clarifications provided by SECI are included here.

The bidders expressed their need to understand SECI’s priority within the EV domain, where it would like empanelled agencies to explore the business opportunities.

In response, the SECI has stated that there could be business opportunities existing in demand creation, demand aggregation, setting up charging infrastructure, the introduction of new and innovative products, market development, and capacity building, among others. empanelled agencies can explore any area of their interest and come up with a techno-commercially feasible proposal.

The prospective bidders also requested SECI to suitably amend the clauses to compensate the empanelled agencies during the identification of business opportunity phase. According to the bidders, SECI is not liable to pay to EAs until signing a formal contract to pursue a business opportunity. However, continuous market scanning for the identification of business opportunities requires considerable time and resources. Even the development of a tailor-made concept note around the business opportunity for SECI would require a sizeable investment of time.

Replying to the request, SECI clarified the EoI provisions would remain unchanged. Empanelled agencies must identify the business opportunities in the electricity and transformative mobility and regularly provide updates to SECI.

Bidders also asked whether an agency not having quality certification like the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) could participate in this EoI. SECI has replied that agencies having quality certificates other than but similar to ISO certification can also apply.

Bidders also wanted to know what support they could expect from SECI. SECI has clarified that it would facilitate a feasible techno-commercial business proposal brought by the empanelled agencies. Modalities and further terms and conditions would be mutually agreed upon between the empanelled agencies and SECI through a binding agreement on case-to-case basis

Last year, the government had extended the validity of the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME)-II program for all approved electric vehicle models. The program is the expanded version of FAME India I, launched on April 1, 2015, with a total outlay of ₹8.95 billion ($126.2 million). The validity was extended by three months and up to December 31, 2020.