Railways Tenders for Procurement of Power From Hybrid Projects

The Indian Railways has issued an RfS, inviting bids from eligible parties to procure power from wind and solar hybrid projects.

The Railway Energy Management Company (REMCL), on behalf of the Indian Railways, has issued a Request for Selection (RfS), inviting bids from eligible parties to procure power from wind and solar hybrid projects.

The scope of work for the selected bidders will include the design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the wind-solar hybrid projects anywhere in India on a Build Own Operate (BOO) basis. Additionally, under the terms of the RfS, the timeline for commissioning the entire capacity has been set at 27 months from the effective date of the PPA, and part commissioning of the projects will not be allowed.

Projects which were commissioned two years before the bid submission deadline will not be viable for consideration under the RfS. The maximum tariff payable has been fixed at Rs 2.93/kWh for the entire term of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) term of 25 years. Bidders will be required to submit a performance bank guarantee for a value of Rs 20 lakh/MW of a project within 30 days of the issuance of the letter of award, and an earnest money deposit of Rs 5 lakh/MW.

In the interest of utilising the optimum potential offered by the hybridisation of solar and wind, the developer is free to declare the rated capacity of the hybrid project at the output level of the sub-pooling substation, which will be considered as the project capacity. The project capacity does not necessarily have to be the arithmetic sum of the installed capacity of the two components; the tender document has underlined.

To be eligible, the bidders must have a net worth not less than Rs 1.5 crore per MW of quoted capacity. Additionally, the developer will have to maintain generation to achieve annual CUF (capacity utilisation factor) of not less than 80 percent of the declared value and not more than 120 percent during the PPA duration of 25 years.