The Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency (UPNEDA) has invited fresh bids to set up 200 MW of solar projects in the state’s solar park.

The ceiling tariff for the tender has been set as ₹3 (~$0.041)/kWh.

The projects will be set up in the Jalaun district’s three locations (150MW) and Kanpur Dehat (50 MW) in the Uttar Pradesh Solar Park.

The last date to submit the bids is October 4, 2021, and bids will be opened on October 5.

Earlier, UPNEDA had floated a request for selection (RfS) for solar power developers to set up 275 MW of grid-connected solar power projects in the state’s solar park.

Later, REC Power Distribution Company (RECPDCL) had issued a notice inviting tender from engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractors to set up 125 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) power projects at two locations in Uttar Pradesh.

Speaking to Mercom, one of the officials from UPNEDA said, “Earlier, UPNEDA had issued a 270 MW tender, out of which 200 MW was auctioned. In that, 125 MW was awarded to RECPDCL and 75 MW to SJVN. RECPDCL didn’t submit the performance bank guarantee. Later, RECPDCL issued an EPC tender for the 125 MW. Now, UPNEDA has canceled the 125 MW RECPDCL tender and released a new tender for 200 MW. SJVN has already started the construction, and land has been allocated to them.”

The maximum number of projects to be allocated to a bidder, including its parent, affiliate, ultimate parent, or any group company, will be limited to five projects. The project should be completed within 15 months from the effective date of the PPA.

The successful bidder will have to furnish an amount of ₹1.05 million (~$14,273)/MW within 30 days of issuing the letter of intent as the performance bank guarantee. The successful bidder for the projects selected based on this RfS is required to sign PPA with the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited within 30 days after the issuance of the letter of intent.

The developer will have to declare the annual capacity utilization factor (CUF) of the project at the time of submission of the response to the RfS, who will be allowed, to revise the annual CUF once within the first year of the commercial operation date. After that, the CUF for the project will remain unchanged for the entire term of the PPA. The declared annual CUF shall, in no case, be less than 17%.

In case of delay in commissioning of the project beyond the scheduled commissioning date until the date as of 21 months from the effective date of the PPA, as part of liquidated damages, the total performance bank guarantee amount for the project will be encashed on a per-day basis.

UPNEDA has proposed promoting only commercially established and operational technologies to minimize the technology risk and achieve timely commissioning of the Projects.

The bidders are advised to take cognizance of the notification issued by MNRE on the imposition of basic customs duty on solar cells and modules while preparing their response to the RfS.

The bidder’s net worth should be at least ₹7 million (~$95,155)/MW of the quoted capacity as of the last date of the previous financial year.

In June this year, UPNEDA canceled its 500 MW solar auction. An official statement from UPNEDA stated that the auction had been canceled in the hope of discovering lower tariffs in new auctions.

In November last year, Bundelkhand Saur Urja Limited, a joint venture of NHPC and UPNEDA, had issued a tender for consultants to create a detailed project report for a 1.2 GW solar park in Jalaun, Uttar Pradesh.

According to Mercom’s India Solar tender Tracker, UPNEDA has so far tendered around 4.65 GW of utility-scale solar projects, out of which only 1,625 MW has been auctioned, while around 2.5 GW stands canceled.