SECI Extends Bid Deadline for 14 MW Solar Plus BESS at Leh and Ladakh

SECI has extended the bid submission deadline for the tender for the development of 14 MW of solar power projects along with 42 MWh of BESS at Leh and Ladakh

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has extended the bid submission deadline for its tender for the development of 14 MW of solar power projects along with 42 MWh of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) at Leh and Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir under the Prime Minister Development Package (PMDP)-2015.

As per the SECI notification, the last date for bid submission has been extended from March 16, 2020, to April 16, 2020. And, the techno-commercial bids will now be opened on the new bid deadline.

In May 2019, we had reported that SECI had issued a new Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) seeking online bids for the development of 14 MW of solar PV power plant with linked 42 MWh of Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) at two locations in Jammu and Kashmir. The two systems (each 7 MW solar plant with 21 MWh BESS facility) will be developed at the Leh and Kargil divisions of the state.

Earlier in March 2019, the nodal agency had issued a similar NIT for the projects. At the time the RfS document was expected to be released on March 15, 2019. However, there was no further development on the tender or project.

In January 2019, we had reported that the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) under the order of the President of India has launched a new scheme for setting up Solar PV Projects with aggregate battery storage capacity in Leh & Kargil.

The lands for setting up solar projects with battery storage will be facilitated by Ladakh Renewable Energy Development Agency (LREDA) and Kargil Renewable Energy Development Agency (KREDA) in their respective regions. SECI will be responsible for fund management i.e. release of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) and will also monitor the performances post commissioning of the projects.

The project shall be implemented in Developer Mode with a fixed tariff of Rs 2 per unit with Viability Gap Funding (VGF) support. And, a maximum Viability Gap Funding (VGF) support of Rs182 crores will be provided to Solar Project Developers for setting up the project. The project will be selected through a process of open competitive reverse bidding on VGF to make available generated solar power at a pre-fixed tariff of Rs 2.0 per unit. The upper limit of VGF is Rs 13.00 Crore for 1 MW solar PV project with battery storage of 3 MWh.