The 1 GW grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) tender issued by Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency (UPNEDA) has been oversubscribed by 870 MW.

Initially, the 1 GW capacity was tendered by the UPNEDA in January 2018. Later UPNEDA, approached the Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) for certain modifications to the competitive bidding guidelines issued by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) for solar PV projects.

When contacted, a UPNEDA official expressed satisfaction over the oversubscription of tender saying, “1,870 MW technical bids for 1 GW tender is good, it shows that the developers think Uttar Pradesh is moving ahead in terms of solar.

The UPNEDA officials added, “There are 13 bidders who have submitted 37 bids. There are six or seven bidders who have submitted more than one bid.” ACME Solar and ReNew Power submitted six bids each to develop 300 MW and 280 MW respectively. Azure Power, Adani and Essel Group submitted five bids each for 300 MW, 250 MW, and 250 MW respectively. Canadian Solar and Hero Future Energies submitted two bids each to develop 100 MW each”.

MMEPL (20 MW), Sukhbir (50 MW), Refex (50 MW), Fortune credit capital (70 MW), EDEN Renewable (50 MW), and Ray power infra (50 MW) were the other bidders, the UPNEDA official further informed.

The official also told Mercom that amendment of the tender document helped garner more interest from the project developers.

When asked about the timeline for the conclusion of auction, the official said, “By the first week of July 2018, the auction is expected to be complete. We will wrap up by July-end 2018, so that the project development can begin.”

Responding to the demand from developers, UPNEDA had allowed developers to present multiple bids. This was done keeping in mind the request that the bids will be based on the location of the project. During pre-bid meeting, the developers had said that tariffs should be based on the location and they would not be able to quote the same tariffs for all locations.