The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has invited bids for the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of a 100 MW solar power project with land in Chhattisgarh. The successful bidder will also have to take care of the operation and maintenance (O&M) activities of the project for 15 years.

The scope of work would include design, engineering, procurement, supply of equipment and materials, testing at manufacturers’ works, packing and forwarding, supply, receipt, unloading, and storage at site, associated civil works, installation, insurance at all stages, erection, testing and commissioning of the project in Chhattisgarh along with the interconnected transmission lines on a turnkey basis.

The last date to submit the bids is September 9, 2021, and the bids will be opened on the same day. The pre-bid meeting will be held on July 23.

Interested bidders are exempt from paying an earnest money deposit to participate in the bidding process.

The project would have to be commissioned within 18 months.

If the contractor fails to comply with the project completion deadline or any extension thereof, the contractor will have to pay a sum equivalent to 0.5% per week of the contract price to the owner. The sum payable would be for the whole of the facilities as liquidated damages for such default subject to the maximum limit of 5% of the contract price for the whole of the facilities.

The minimum land required for the project is 400 acres, and bidders must consider this quantum while bidding. However, bidders are required to assess judicially the total land requirement for the project depending upon shape and module efficiency design while bidding, the bidding document further specifies.

The successful bidder will have to submit an amount of 3% as contract performance security. The performance security will be valid for a total period of 201 months (18 months of project commissioning period + O&M period of 180 months + three months of additional period) from the date of the issuance of the contract order.

As per the tender document, any bidder from a country that shares a land border with India will be eligible to bid in this tender only if the bidder is registered with the competent authority.

The nodal agency has stated that the bidders must take note of the Basic Customs Duty to be imposed from April 1, 2022, and the imposition of BCD will not be considered under ‘Change in Law.’

Also, the procurement of solar modules and solar inverters will be done from Class-I local suppliers only. Class-I local suppliers are those whose procurement services have local content equal to or more than 50%.

Additionally, the modules to be procured for the project should be from the List-I of the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) published by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The bidder should also provide a disclosure certificate stating they are aware of binding provisions of the ALMM order and the list thereunder while quoting for the tender.

In May this year, SECI had invited bids to select land banks and parcels to set up a 100 MW solar project in Chhattisgarh. SECI had invited bids from private landowners, farmers, cooperative societies, and land aggregators willing to sell their lands on an outright basis or a long-term lease (30 years) anywhere in Chhattisgarh.

Earlier, SECI had once again extended the bid submission deadline for the 100 MW (AC) of solar projects along with a 40MW/120 MWh battery energy storage system. The project is to be developed in the Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh.

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