The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI)  has extended the bid submission deadline for the setting up of 10 GW of  ISTS connected solar PV power projects linked with 3 GW (per annum) solar manufacturing capacity.

The bid submission deadline has been extended to September 27, 2018 and techno-commercial bid will open on September 28, 2018.

Recently, SECI had issued a notification for the second pre-bid meeting for setting up 10 GW ISTS connected solar projects linked with solar manufacturing plant under global competitive bidding (Phase-I) on September 6, 2018. The first pre-bid meeting took place on June 22, 2018.

In May 2018, SECI had tendered 5 GW of manufacturing capacity to be set up across the country. The manufacturing capacity was to be linked to ISTS-connected solar projects for an aggregate capacity of 10 GW. The bid-submission deadline was August 27, 2018.

However, recently, SECI announced that it has reduced the capacity of the manufacturing tender from 5 GW to 3 GW. The minimum capacity developers can bid for manufacturing has also been reduced from 1 GW to 600 MW.

The goal of the tender is to strengthen the domestic solar supply chain by incentivising domestic manufacturing capacity establishment by awarding PPAs to build projects.

The scope of work includes the setting up the manufacturing unit and the solar PV projects, as well as the transmission network up to the interconnection or delivery point. The tender was prepared in line with the solar bidding guidelines issued by the Ministry of Power in August 2017.

Meanwhile, SECI has also extended another the bid submission deadline recently for setting up 150 MW (50 MW x 3) of grid connected floating solar power projects at Rihand Dam (also known as Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar Reservoir), located in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. The new bid submission deadline is September 28, 2018.