SECI Cancels 100 MW Getalsud Dam Floating Solar Tender

Over two months after it first extended the deadline to respond to bidders, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has cancelled the tender for the 100 MW Getalsud Dam project near Ranchi in Jharkhand.

The cancellation follows a familiar pattern of challenges faced with floating solar tenders in India, where the standout success has been NTPC with the plants it has managed to commission across some of its thermal power plants.

The roadblock standing in the way of floating solar tenders seems to be both technical and others, as seen with the difficulties faced with the Rihand Dam floating solar plans too, which, for all practical purposes, seem to have stalled too. The massive Omkareshwar 600 MW plan has also been broken down into smaller parcels to try and push ahead, but only with limited success so far. The record for date extensions of curse is maintained by the small floating solar project that was to be set up at Nangal Pond in Himachal. It went through 15 date extensions before eventually  being taken up by PSU SJVN for execution. Updates on SJVN’s success with the same are still awaited.

While SECI has not specified any reason for the Getalsud cancellation, we have been given to understand that there were issues linked to both technical parameters and bidding prices, which have caused the eventual cancellation. So far, despite the volatility in international markets, bidders on utility scale solar projects have managed to bid relatively aggressively for large tenders recently, with prices below the informal Rs 2.70/unit rate that seems to trigger resistance from buyers.

For Jharkhand, the cancellation will be disappointing, as the state continues to lag on solar capacity addition, depending more on the many corporate miners and cement manufacturers to set up MW scale capacities so far. Or promise to set them up actually. The state has announced an ambitious solar policy with a target for 4000 MW last week, perhaps acknowledging the many issues it faces, and in an effort to make a fresh start.