The Solar Energy Corporation of India’s (SECI) recent tender for 2 GW of the interstate transmission system (ISTS) connected solar projects (Tranche IX) has garnered a lot of interest from developers.

Mercom has gathered the list of bidders from the industry, which shows the tender has been oversubscribed by 3.28 GW. ReNew Power placed bids for 1.2 GW, which was the highest bid capacity of the total 12 bidders on the list, followed closely by NTPC Limited, that quoted 1.18 GW.

Tata Power Renewable Energy bid for 600 MW of projects, O2 Power for 400 MW, while Eden Renewables, Azure Power, SolarPack, ENEL Green Power, Ayana Renewables, and IB Vogt placed bids for 300 MW each. Meanwhile, AMP Solar placed bids for 100 MW.

Previously, SECI had extended the deadline for the bid submission of this solar tender to June 15, 2020, from May 28, 2020.

SECI had issued a request for selection for the projects in March 2020. According to the tender documents, applicants could submit a single bid for quantities between 50 MW and 2 GW in multiples of 10 MW.  The minimum project capacity per project is 50 MW, and the maximum is 300 MW. The total capacity that can be allocated to a single bidder is 2 GW.

One of the developers told Mercom that it is likely that this ISTS tender may be seeing a positive response following the statement given by Union Minister of Power, R.K. Singh that the waiver on ISTS charges might get an extension.

In November 2019, the Ministry of Power had announced that the ISTS charges and losses on the transmission of electricity generated from solar and wind projects would be waived off as long as they are commissioned before December 31, 2022. This deadline was revised from March 31, 2022, set previously.

However, the coronavirus crisis has disrupted the momentum in all segments of the renewable industry. The end of the waiver may throw a wrench in the works of major power projects, causing tariffs to rise. Stakeholders Mercom spoke to unanimously agreed that the industry needs a longer deadline extension to give them some breathing room to get their projects back on track following the havoc caused by the global pandemic.

According to Mercom India Research, SECI has so far tendered 16.7 GW of ISTS solar projects under tranche I to X; and auctioned around 8.84 GW under tranche I to Tranche VIII.