The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has once again extended the bid submission deadline for the 2.5 GW of interstate-connected solar projects under Tranche X (ISTS-X) at the Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Power Park (UMREPP) in Koppal district of Karnataka.

The new submission deadline is September 29, 2020. The bids will be opened on October 05, 2020. Earlier, Mercom had reported that SECI had extended the deadline to August 14, 2020, for soft copy submission and August 18, 2020, for hard copy submissions. Before that, SECI had extended the deadline to June 29, 2020.

Background

The tender was initially floated in April this year, and the date for the submission of bids was May 29, 2020.

The scope of work for the 2.5 GW solar tender included the acquisition of land, connectivity, and obtaining Long-Term Access (LTA) approvals by the solar power developer. Interested bidders were expected to make an earnest money deposit of ₹400,000 (~$5,361)/MW.

According to the tender documents, the applicants can submit a single bid for quantities between 50 MW and 2.5 GW. The total capacity that can be allocated to a single bidder is 2.5 GW. The solar projects are required to be designed for the interconnection at the power system stabilizer substation at a voltage level of at least 66 kV.

The developer must also submit a performance bank guarantee (PBG) for ₹800,000 (~$10,576)/MW within 70 days of the issuance of the letter of award (LoA) or before signing the power purchase agreement (PPA), whichever is earlier.

According to Mercom India Research, SECI has so far tendered 16.7 GW of ISTS solar projects under Tranche I to X and auctioned 10.8 GW under Tranche I to IX.

Recently, SECI extended the bid submission deadline for its tender to procure 5 GW of renewable power on a round-the-clock (RTC) basis complemented with thermal power projects. The revised deadline for bid submission is now September 1, 2020, for hard copies and August 28, 2020, for soft copies.

SECI has also extended the bid submission deadline for its tender for 7.5 GW of grid-connected solar power projects slated to be developed in the districts of Leh and Kargil. The revised deadline is now December 2, 2020.