The Kerala State Electricity Board Limited (KSEBL) has issued a request for selection (RfS) of renewable power generators to develop 40 MW of solar projects of 500 kW and 2 MW capacity under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) program.

The ceiling tariff for the tender is ₹3.66 (~$0.049)/kWh.

The last date to submit bids is December 8, 2021. The bids will be opened on December 14. The pre-bid meeting will take place on November 24.

Bidders have to furnish an earnest money deposit of ₹100,000 (~$1,347)/MW. The successful bidder should submit ₹500,000 (~$6,733)/MW as a performance bank guarantee within 30 days of issuing the letter of award (LoA).

Bidders can participate as individuals or groups of farmers, panchayats, farmer producer organizations, cooperatives, or water user organizations to set up projects on their lands. If bidders cannot arrange the capital needed to develop solar projects, they can opt for developing projects through a developer signing a land lease agreement.

Individual farmers, groups of farmers, panchayats, cooperatives, water user associations, farmer producer organizations are not required to meet the financial eligibility criteria to develop solar projects on their lands.

If a developer needs to develop projects on leased land, the bidder’s net worth must not be less than ₹10 million (~$134,640)/MW of the applied capacity.

The renewable power generator should declare the capacity utilization factor while signing a power purchase agreement (PPA). The CUF must be less than 15% over a year, and the generator must generate minimum power within the permissible lower limit of CUF declared by the generator.

The successful bidder will have to commission projects within 12 months of the effective date of the PPA. The company will also be responsible for constructing 11 kV lines from the solar projects to the sub-station, constructing the bay, and installing the switchgear at the sub-station where the plant would be connected to the grid.

Last month, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited invited bids for 444 MW of decentralized solar projects of 500 kW to 2 MW capacity under component A of the PM-KUSUM program in Maharashtra.

Mercom had reported that KSEBL invited bids for an operation and maintenance contract for three years for the 1 MW grid-connected, ground-mounted solar project on the premises of the 220 kV substation at Kanjikkode in Kerala’s Palakkad district.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, KSEBL has invited bids for 1.46 GW of solar projects to date.