State-owned SJVN Limited has invited tenders for the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of a 100 MW solar project at the Raghanesda Solar Park (Phase X) in Gujarat.

Interested bidders are expected to provide an earnest money deposit (EMD) of ₹60 million (~$815,603). The last date for the submission of bids is October 19, 2020.

The company expects the EPC work of the project to be completed within 15 months from the date the letter of award (LoA) is issued. The 15 months is inclusive of the commissioning period and a successful performance guarantee period of three months. The EPC company also has to provide operation and maintenance services for 5 years.

SJVN recently announced that it had won this capacity in Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited’s (GUVNL) auction. It intends to enter into a power purchase agreement with the GUVNL for 25 years. SJVN had participated in the open bidding process and won the quoted capacity of 100 MW at ₹2.73 (~$0.0371)/kWh. A BSE filling by SJVN added that the tentative cost of development for the project is ₹4.9 billion (~$66.6 million).

To be eligible to take part in the competitive bidding process, applicants must have had an average annual turnover of at least ₹15 billion (~$203.9 million) over the last three financial years. The net worth of the bidders must have been positive in at least two of the previous three financial years. SJVN did not provide any technical eligibility criteria.

SJVN has been actively foraying into solar power generation and had issued an Expression of Interest (EoI) from experienced companies willing to develop approximately 500 MW of solar PV capacity as long back as 2017. Later on, the predominantly hydropower generator floated a tender to empanel experienced solar EPC companies to set up solar projects in the 25-50 MW capacity range. Recently in August 2020, it invited EoI from interested parties for shortlisting suitable land for the development of 500 MW of solar projects in Rajasthan.

SJVN has also won 100 MW of solar projects in the GUVNL auction for 700 MW of solar projects in Dholera solar park (Phase IX) at a tariff of ₹2.8 (~$0.038)/kWh that would be developed on a build-own-operate basis. It has also issued an EPC tender for the construction of this 100 MW project in July this year.