SECI Powers On with RFS For 2500 MW Project at Karnataka

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) yesterday issued a Request for Selection (RfS) document for selection of solar power developers for setting up of 2500 MW ISTS-Connected Solar PV Power Projects at Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Power Park (UMREPP) in Koppal District, Karanataka under Tariff-based Competitive Bidding (ISTS-X). Approximately 13000 Acres of land on lease basis is available in Talakal and surrounding villages of Koppal District of Karnataka, India for this project.

The scope of the project includes includes the acquisition of land, connectivity, and obtaining long-term open access approvals by the solar power developer. With this RFS, the state agency is quite clearly doing its best to ensure that the momentum for the solar sector does not flag,even as project execution challenges  are expected to be a serious issue for the coming quarters, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and related restrictions.

The last date for the submission of bids is May 29, 2020.

The UMREPP projects were proposed back in 2019 by the MNRE to the government as a way to speed up utility solar capacity,and envisage a much higher level of involvement from respective state governments.While public sector units were to be encouraged to set up these large scale parks,it was proposed that state governments would also get 2 paise per unit of power production from these parks.

For the current project, bidders are expected to make an earnest money deposit (EMD) of Rs 400,000 /MW. Besides this, there is a performance bank guarantee (PBG) for ₹800,000/MW within 70 days of the issuance of the letter of award (LoA) or before signing the power purchase agreement (PPA), whichever is earlier.

Net worth requirements are a minimum of Rs 8 million /MW of the capacity undertaken at the end of the last financial year. They must also have had a minimum annual turnover of Rs 4.14 million /MW of the quoted capacity in the last financial year. Applicants can submit a single bid for quantities between 50 MW and 2.5 GW. A single bidder can also bid for, and win, the full 2.5 GW.

The document processing fees also follow the usual SECI norms, at Rs. 5 Lakh +18% GST for each Project from 50 MW upto 90
MW capacity, and Rs. 15 Lakh + 18% GST for each Project from 100 MW and above capacity.

For the record, as per MNRE reports to the Union Cabinet, till January 31 2020,India has installed 86.32 GW of renewable energy capacity, of which 34.03 GW is solar. Projects worth 35.09 GW are at various stages of implementation, while  34.47 GW were at planning stage. No updated reports have been filed since then.