Winning Bids Cross Rs 3/kWh In SECI’s 1 GW Solar Tender

In an ominous sign of changing market dynamics, SECI’s 1000 MW Tranche XVIII tender for ISTS connected solar projects has attracted winning bids, all over Rs 3/kWh. The tender, released in September this year, has ReNew Solar Power( 250 MW at Rs 3.04), Acme Solar holdings (300 MW at Rs 3.05) and Adani Green Energy (50 MW at RS 3.10) through Adani Renewable Energy Holdings Twelve emerging as the eventual winners of the tender. Indicating the issue with pricing and the bids received, only 600 MW of the 1 GW tender has finally been awarded.

The tender had no special conditions that would have forced pricing to go as high as it did, when compared to previous tenders recently. With a minimum bid capacity of 50 MW and a maximum of 500 MW, the tender allowed partial commissioning as well in tranches of 50 MW each. The higher bids will worry all stakeholders as the unsold pipeline of tendered projects was as high as 9.2 GW. We couldn’t confirm if any of those unsold projects were at rates higher than these, but indications are, there are some at comparable rates.

This is Acme’s second project after it secured an IPO earlier this year. The company earlier this year secured an FDRE project from NHPC at ₹4.56/kWh for its FDRE project.

A Brief Comparison To Previous Tenders

The tariff for SECI’s latest tender is higher than its previous 500 MW solar project tenders which were awarded to SAEL and NTPC Renewable Energy with the lowest quoted tariff of ₹2.48/kWh. SECI’s 1 GW tender tariff rate remains higher than its erstwhile 1.5 GW solar tender, which allotted the lowest tariff at 2.57/kWh to Avaada Energy and ReNew Solar Power for 300 MW and Engie Energy India for 100 MW solar projects respectively.

The latest tender result remains relatively higher than NTPC’s recent 1.2 GW solar auction result. As per the declared result, Apraava received the project at the relatively lowest tariff of ₹2.68/kWh for a 50 MW project. This was followed by Avaada and ReNew. They got 750 MW and 300 MW, respectively, at ₹2.69/kWh. Whereas JSW Energy bagged 400 MW out of the 700 MW capacity for ₹2.69/kWh.

Avaada Energy secured a 1,050 MWp capacity for the solar project at a competitive tariff of ₹2.69/kWh. NTPC released the tender for this project on February 8, 2024. This project is projected to be complete within 24 months from the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) signing.