Railways Looking to Procure Schedulable Power From Solar & Storage System

South Eastern Railway Invites Bids for 13.54 MW Solar Rooftop Projects

REMCL, a JV of the Indian Railways, has issued an EOI for Pilot Project for procurement of schedulable power from a solar plus storage system.

REMCL Ltd, a Joint Venture (JV) company of the Indian Railways and RITES Ltd, has issued an expression of interest (EOI) for its Pilot Project for the procurement of Flexible, Schedulable renewable power for long term from grid-connected solar project with an energy storage system.

One of the largest electricity consumers in India, the Indian Railways (IR), aims to become a “net-zero” carbon emissions organization by 2030. In this quest, it has been undertaking multiple initiatives to diversify its energy portfolio towards greener sources of energy. As a part of these initiatives, it is planning to grow its renewable energy portfolio by expanding into solar-plus-storage hybrid systems. The aim here is to increase power reliability by managing the intermittency of solar energy. 

Based on the success of this pilot storage project, Indian Railways will like to scale up storage based project across the Railway Network to achieve its largest ‘net zero’ carbon emissions organization by 2030.

REMC Ltd. for and on behalf of the Ministry of Railways has invited EOI for the establishment of a Solar plus Storage Pilot project to procure power from the hybrid project at a tariff discovered through a competitive e-bidding process. Eligible renewable energy developers have been requested to provide techno-economical, feasible and innovative solutions for the effective utilisation of solar energy during non-solar hours through energy storage technologies. 

Based on the inputs received in EOI responses and solutions proposed by prospective bidders, the bid document will be prepared and uploaded for bidding on the project.

The renewable energy developers will have to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the solar plant with appropriate storage and enter into Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Western Railways for a period of 25 years at a fixed tariff.

The project will be set up on a vacant railway land of approximately 90 acres in Dahod, Gujarat. Interested parties can submit their response to the EOI latest by January 5, 2020.