The Agency for New and Renewable Energy Research and Technology (ANERT) has invited bids for the empanelment of agencies for the supply and installation of solar systems below 1 kW in Kerala.

The expression of interest (EoI) has been invited for solar lanterns, soura suvidha kits, solar home lighting systems, and solar street lighting systems. The solar systems should have five years of comprehensive warranty, including for the battery.

The last date to submit the bids is November 03, 2020, and the opening of bids will take place on November 04, 2020.

The benchmark cost fixed by ANERT for solar lanterns is ₹3,300 (~$44.9), and for the soura suvidha kit, it is ₹4,000 (~$54.5).

For solar home lighting systems under model-I, the module capacity should be 75 Wp, and the system should have a 500 Wh lithium-ferro phosphate battery. For model-II, the module capacity will be the same, and instead of lithium-ferro phosphate battery, lead acid or gel battery of capacity 12V, 60AH will be used.

Similarly, for solar street lighting systems under model-I, the module capacity should be 60Wp, and for model-II, it should be 120 Wp. Likewise, for models III and IV, it should be 200 Wp and 500 Wp, respectively.

Similarly, the benchmark costs for solar home lighting systems has been fixed as ₹21,000 (~$286.3) for model-I and ₹31,000 (~$422.7) for model-II.

The benchmark costs for models-I, II, III, and IV of street lighting systems have been set as ₹27,000 (~$368.2), ₹49,000 (~$668.2), ₹70,000 (~$954.5), and ₹180,000 (~$2,454), respectively.

To take part in the bidding process, the bidder should have supplied at least 500 solar lanterns with module capacity in the range of 3 W-15 W, by the date of bid submission.

For solar kits, the bidder should have supplied at least 500 solar kits of solar module capacity 3 W-15 W.

Similarly, the bidder should have supplied at least 100 solar home lighting systems of module capacity 40 W-1 kW as on the date of bid submission.

For solar street lighting systems, the bidder should have supplied and installed at least 100 solar street lighting systems of module capacity 30 W-600 W. The empanelment of agencies will be done for each solar system separately.

Just a few days ago, ANERT invited bids from empanelled agencies for the rate contract of 10 MW of solar power projects to be developed in Kerala. The last date to submit the bids for this tender is October 20, 2020.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, ANERT has so far floated nearly 16.61 MW of solar tenders. In July this year, it issued a request for selection for 6 MW of grid-connected ground-mounted solar systems in Palakkad, Kerala. Then, last year, it issued a tender for 10 MW of off-grid solar power projects at public institutions across 14 districts in Kerala.