Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has extended the bid submission deadline of its tender for 150 MW of solar projects to be developed at various locations in the country.

The deadline for the submission of bids was revised to July 22, 2020, from May 21, 2020, previously. The pre-bid meeting has also been scheduled for July 1, 2020, from April 30, 2020, earlier.

In March, the CEB issued a Request for Proposals (RfP) from foreign and domestic companies to develop and maintain these solar projects on a build, own, and operate basis under the Sooraya Bala Sangramaya Phase III. The contract duration was for 20 years, and the tender came with a tariff cap of LKR (Sri Lankan rupee) ₹15.60 (~₹6.27)/kWh.

The scope of work included the design, supply, delivery, installation, testing, commissioning, operation, and maintenance of solar projects. Interested bidders were allowed to bid for projects ranging from 1 to 10 MW in grid capacity across the 20 sites.

The tender documents said that the power purchase agreement (PPA) would be signed within nine months from the date of issue of the Letter of Intent. The commercial operation date of the project was scheduled to be within nine months of the date of signing the PPA.

Last year, the country’s Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA) floated two expressions of s for domestic and foreign companies to develop solar projects of 10 MW capacity with 20% energy storage systems. The projects were to be developed under a joint venture with the SEA at the Hambantota Solar Energy Park.

Previously, the Sri Lankan government approved a project for constructing 100 MW of floating solar power projects in the Maduru Oya reservoir in Mahaweli Economic Zone. The floating solar power project was to be implemented by a joint venture with the Canadian Solar Institute. The government of Canada proposed to implement this project with storage.