Paryapt Solar, a special purpose vehicle by UPC Solar, has emerged as the lowest bidder by quoting a tariff of ₹2.55 (~$0.035)/kWh to develop 50 MW in the recent auction conducted by the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) for the purchase of power from 500 MW grid-connected solar photovoltaic power projects (Phase IV).

Moreover, three developers, namely, Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited (GSECL), Juniper Green Energy, and Adani Renewables have emerged as the second lowest (L2) bidders by quoting a tariff of ₹2.67 (~$0.037)/kWh to develop 75MW, 120MW, and 150 MW respectively.

ReNew Power was the L3 bidder and quoted the tariff of ₹2.68 (~$0.037)/kWh to develop 250 MW but will be awarded only 105 MW due to the bucket-filling method applied to the awarded capacities in reverse auctions.

GUVNL had tendered this capacity in January 2019 without any upper tariff ceiling.

One of the winning bidders commented on the results saying, “The solar module rates have now increased to $0.23 and the bids cannot get lower than this. In September 2018, GUVNL bids attracted a tariff of ₹2.44 (~$0.0338)/kWh, the module prices were about $0.21. But then again, there is a difference of 12 paise (~$0.001) between the L1 and the L2 bids which are likely to make the developers uneasy as to whether GUVNL will reexamine this auction, considering their history of canceling auctions citing high tariffs.”

When Mercom asked GUVNL to comment on the discovered tariff, they said it was too early to comment, leaving room for apprehensions.

Recently, Mercom reported that GUVNL’s 500 MW solar PV power projects (Phase IV) tender was oversubscribed by 545 MW. Bids totaling 1,045 MW were submitted in response to the tendered capacity of 500 MW.

In the past, GUVNL has canceled the auction for 500 MW of solar photovoltaic projects in the state citing high tariff where Kalthia Engineering and Construction had emerged as the lowest bidder by quoting a tariff of ₹2.98 (~$0.046)/kWh to develop 50 MW of solar PV projects.

The L1 tariff discovered in this auction is 11 paisa (~$0.0015) higher than the GUVNL auction in September 2018. UPC Solar had quoted the same tariff of ₹2.55 (~$0.035)/kWh in the auction for same capacity of 50 MW but came at fifth place. Aditya Birla Renewables had emerged as the L1 bidder by quoting a tariff of ₹2.44 (~$0.0338)/kWh to develop 100 MW of solar PV capacity.

The lowest bidder in the auction, UPC Solar is a renewable energy developer based in the United States. The company says it has about 750 MW of renewable energy projects in operation and 3,000 MW under development.

Gujarat has so far installed approximately 1.5 GW of large-scale solar installations as of Q4 2018, according to Mercom India Project tracker.