The latest solar power tender issued in the state of Tamil Nadu is in stark contrast to the one issued for the Newa solar power park. The former has, once again, received a poor response from the project developers.

The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) had floated a tender for 500 megawatts of solar PV power capacity. The tender received bids by 22 project developers willing to set up 300 megawatts (MW) of capacity. The poor response is worlds apart from the 10 times oversubscription for the 750 megawatt Rewa solar power park.

The poor response is ironically still better than that received for the 500 megawatt tender previously issued by TANGEDCO. In November 2016, the tender attracted 20 bids of just 122 megawatts. The utility had no choice but to scrap the tender. Project developers were unable to purchase land for their projects due to lack of funds owning to the demonetization drive of the Indian government.

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has scrapped 150MW of solar capacity that was due to be auctioned under local content rules.

The original tender involved 750MW under open category at the Bhadla Solar Park in Rajasthan, but SECI carved out another 150MW for the Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) back in January. The DCR mandates solar equipment to be sourced from India. However, SECI announced today that it has decided to revert back to the original conditions by taking out the DCR element.

Thus, 500MW open category will now be auctioned for Phase III, while 250MW open category will later be auctioned for Phase IV.

India’s largest utility NTPC has invited bids for the development of 750MW of solar capacity at the Pavagada Solar Park in the southern state of Karnataka.

The capacity will be split into six blocks of 125MW projects. The tender is for the design, engineering, manufacturing, supply, packing and forwarding, transportation, unloading, storage, installation and commissioning of the grid-connected plants. Cells and modules can be procured from anywhere in the world under open category.

Successful bidders will also provide O&M services for a five-year period.

To push low solar power costs, MNRE asked states to study Rewa model, redesign their solar tenders

The low bid received for the Rewa solar park in Madhya Pradesh has jolted the market in many ways. While most states are rethinking their tenders, many have gone slow on buying solar power contracted at higher rates.

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has extended the deadline for three solar parks, Charanka in Gujarat, Bhadla in Rajasthan and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh. Sources said the tenders had been put on hold after solar tariffs declined to a levelised Rs 3.3 per unit at the Rewa solar power park.

At the Bhadla solar power park, the portion of the project to be built by domestic content has been scrapped. “The cost of solar power has fallen so low that we now have to rethink the process. The reason for shelving the domestic content requirement is in line with the effort to bring down the cost,” said an SECI executive.

Source: Business Standard