MNRE Extends Timelines for ‘One Sun One World One Grid’

MNRE has announced that it has extended the timelines of the RfP for implementing the One Sun One World One Grid initiative.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has announced that it has extended the timelines of the Request for Proposal (RfP) for developing a long term vision, implementation plan road map, and institutional framework for implementing the One Sun One World One Grid initiative.

The ministry has stated that the response to vendors’ requests for clarification on the RfP, which were all supposed to be cleared by July 13, 2020, at the latest – will be altered and the ministry will now issue a corrigendum on July 27, 2020.

Further, the ministry has also extended the deadline for the submission of proposals. For online submissions, the deadline now is August 10, 2020, while it is August 12, 2020, for offline submissions. The evaluation of the proposals will still take an estimated 4 weeks before they can be approved.

In May, the ministry had invited proposals from eligible consulting firms for developing a long-term vision, implementation plan, road map and institutional framework for implementing ‘One Sun One World One Grid’ (OSOWOG). In line with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for connecting solar energy supply across borders by giving the mantra of ‘One World One Sun One Grid’ while addressing the inaugural function of 2nd Global RE-Invest meeting of Indian Ocean Rim Association and the first assembly of International Solar Alliance (ISA) in Delhi.

India’s motive behind the OSOWOG initiative is to take another leap towards building a global ecosystem of interconnected renewable energy resources that are seamlessly shared for mutual benefits and global sustainability.

The OSOWOG initiative is planned across 3 phases:

• Phase I (Middle East-South Asia-South East Asia (MESASEA) interconnection): Indian Grid interconnection with Middle East, South Asia and South-East Asian grids to share solar and other renewable energy resources for meeting electricity needs including peak demand.
• Phase II (Solar and other Renewable Energy resources-rich regions’ interconnection): MESASEA grid getting interconnected with the African power pools to share solar and other renewable energy power of the countries located in solar and renewable energy-rich areas.
• Phase III (Global interconnection): to achieve the One Sun One World One Grid vision.

The Ministry will be evaluating the proposals, select the implementing firm, supervising, driving all the activities and deliverables that will be implemented under this RFP by engaging the resources identified and allocated to ensure a single source of communication, comprehensive review, diligent monitoring towards achieving high-quality deliverables on a timely basis.