SCCL’s 81 MW Solar Projects Saw Yet another Extension from SECI

State-owned coal mining giant Singareni Collieries Co. Ltd’s (SCCL’s) solar projects having an aggregate capacity of 81 MW saw yet another extension for the deadline for submission of bids from Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

The said tender is a combination of three different solar project tenders including 34 MW (AC) ground-based solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant, 32 MW (AC) OB Dump based solar PV power project, and 15 MW (AC) floating solar PV power plant for different packages at SCCL Telangana state.

However, this time out of three tenders, two tenders witnessed bid deadline extension namely 32 MW (AC) OB Dump based solar project, and 15 MW (AC) floating solar power project.

The brief scope of these solar projects includes designing, engineering, supply, construction, erection, testing, commissioning and O&M.

Now, the last date and time for bid submission of 32 MW (AC) OB Dump based solar PV power project have been extended to July 09, 2020, till 1400 hrs from its existing date of June 29, 2020. It’s bid opening date has also been extended from June 29, 2020, to July 09, 2020, at 1600 hrs.

Besides, the bid submission deadline for 15 MW (AC) floating solar PV power plant has been extended till July 10, 2020, at 1400 hrs from its existing deadline of July 01, 2020. Also, it’s bid opening date has been extended to July 10, 2020, at 1600 hrs from the earlier date of July 01, 2020.

Meanwhile, SECI has requested interested bidders to remain updated for any notices w.r.t. this tender document from its website.

Earlier at the beginning of June itself, in a series of multiple extensions, SECI had issued a notification, extending the bid submission deadline for these 3 solar PV project tenders to be built at SCCL Telangana.

These days many SECI tenders face multiple deadline extensions. Thus, in order to get more insights on what will be the possible reasons for such extensions, we recently talked to a solar EPC and developer. According to him, “the tendering system can be more transparent, especially post submission of the tender documents. We have seen a few cases where we have submitted all relevant documents for the tender and have no visibility on the selection process or stage of decision for over 3-4 months. Moreover, the basis for rejection of our bid for tenders is not always clear – we understand that this is not the responsibility of the tenderer but as a company growing in this space it would support us.”

He further added “in addition, over the past few months, many tenders have been getting postponed perhaps 1-2 times over. This might be a combination of under-prepared tender documents or lack of technical feasibility done prior to tendering due to which low response is received. The lockdown imposed during for Covid-19 did make it difficult for a few EPC and developers to prepare appropriately, so we are glad that many tenderers have taken this into advisement. Still, however, there are a few larger tenders that have been re-tendered and postponed due to lack of effective document formulation, which is a time-consuming process for all stakeholders involved.”

There may be limitations of both the nodal agency and the bidders, but the need of the hour is the mutual solution in such situations, which can help in avoiding unnecessary delays in project executions.