Five Winners in NHPC’s 2 GW Solar Power Projects Tender

Five firms have been declared as winners in the recently concluded auctions for the 2 GW ISTS connected solar projects tender by the NHPC.

Five firms have been declared as winners in the recently concluded auctions for the 2 GW interstate transmission system (ISTS) connected solar projects tender by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC). SoftBank-backed SB Energy, Axis Energy Ventures India, O2 Power, EDEN Renewables, and Avaada Energy are the five winners.

SB Energy, Axis Energy EDEN and O2 Power all quoted the identical L1 tariff of Rs 2.55/kWh in the auction, with each being awarded the full quoted capacities they had submitted proposals for under the tender. SB Energy won rights to develop 600 MW solar projects, Axis Energy won 400 MW capacity, EDEN Renewables won 300 MW and O2 Power won 380 MW capacity.

Avaada Energy which quoted a tariff of Rs 2.56/kWh was awarded 320 MW capacity. The firm had submitted a proposal for 600 MW capacity, however, based on the bucket filling method, it was only awarded 320 MW capacity.

The tender had received technical bid submission worth 3.78 GW after nine developers including ReNew Power, Tata Power and AMP Solar, had submitted bids.

In January, NHPC had extended the deadline for bid submission for its tender for 2 GW of solar PV projects. The deadline for bid submissions had been extended until January 10, 2019, with the techno-commercials bids scheduled to be opened on January 14, 2019. The original tender deadline was September 27, 2019.

Besides extending the deadline for the tender, the corporation had also amended the minimum tariff payable to the project. Which had been increased to Rs 2.78/kWh from the Rs 2.65/kWh. Initially, the NHPC had set a tariff ceiling of Rs 2.95/kWh however, in its first amendment that was issued in October 2019, the ceiling tariff was revised to Rs 2.65/kWh. The tariff will be applicable for 25 years.

The amount of earnest money deposit (EMD) had also been reduced from Rs 10 lakh/ MW of bid capacity to Rs 4 lakh/MW.

NHPC had stated that the interested bidder could bid for projects at multiple locations as long as each project has a minimum capacity of 50 MW. However, the bidder was expected to quote a single tariff for the entire project capacity offered.