11 Firms Win Allocations In SECI's 2000 MW/4000MWH ISTS Tender

The much-awaited results for SECI's third Solar + BESS Tender, following on from the previous tender where a price of Rs 3.52/kWh was discovered, are out, and the results, as expected, have been extremely good. The final discovered price of Rs 2.86/kWh is a full 9% below the earlier L1. The tender was notable for the 4 hours of  supply for buyer on daily basis during non-solar hours, with SPD to supply upto 200 MWh of energy for every 100 MW of solar capacity installed during peak hours, to be accounted monthly. 

SECI bid started at 3.26/unit with 25 bidders in the play; however, the total bid was oversubscribed 2.25 times (4.5 GW worth of bids submitted for 2-GW projects). 

Out of the 11 winning bidders, eight bidders secured the project at Rs. 2.86/kWh, including Welspun Renewables (200 MW), MB Power (Madhya Pradesh) (150 MW), Shivalaya Construction (600 MW), Oswal Cables (50 MW), Purvah Green Power (300 MW), Banyan Insolation (100 MW), LC Infra (50 MW), Stockwell Solar (80 MW). 

On the other hand, the remaining three winners secure the bids at Rs 2.87/kWh, which includes SAEL Industries (300 MW), GH2 Solar (300 MW), and Navayuga Green Energy secured the remaining 300 MW project at Rs 2.87/kWh. Keeping in trend, the tender continued to add new entrants to the BESS sector,   with firms like Banyan Insolation, Oswal Cables making an entry. The results continue to demonstrate a push to get a foothold into the sector, sometimes at wafer thin margins, or at least an assumption that nothing would go wrong, if one looks at the final bids.   

Winning Bidders: SECI's 2000 MW/4000MWH Solar+BESS Tender

Previous Tenders: A Brief Analysis

SECI Awards Tender at ₹3.52/kWh

In December 2024, the solar plus storage tender saw a drop in prices to ₹3.52/kWh in one of the largest Solar+Storage tenders by SECI for 2 GW of solar and 4 GWh of BESS capacity. The winning bidders for these projects were NTPC Renewable Energy, Sembcorp Green Infra, Solarcraft Power India 8, and Hero Solar Energy — all securing bids at ₹3.52/kWh.

SJVN Awards Bids at ₹3.32/kWh

Earlier, in May 2025, SJVN attracted bids from 18 bidders and eventually awarded the 1.2 GW solar plus storage tender at ₹3.32/kWh to six developers. The winning bidders were Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance NU Energies, Sembcorp Industries Ltd, Jindal India Renewable Energy, JBM Group, SAEL Ltd, and Fastnote Biofuels (Hindustan Power).

NHPC Discovers Tariff of ₹3.13/kWh

In yet another notable solar plus energy storage project, NHPC, earlier this year in May discovered tariffs as low as ₹3.13/kWh in its 1.2 GW solar plus storage project tender awarded to Fastnote Biofuels for a 100 MW project.

The public sector utility awarded its 1.2 GW solar project, along with 600 MW/2,400 MWh of energy storage systems (ESS), to five developers at a uniform tariff of ₹3.13/kWh. With this tender, tariffs for solar projects with four hours of storage have dropped to ₹3.13/kWh — down from the recently discovered ₹3.52/kWh and ₹3.32/kWh in earlier rounds.

Speed Of The Essence Now

With SECI already discovering buyers for the previous tender at Rs 3.52, finding buyers for this tender should not take long, and perhaps even more importantly, one hopes execution will also move at record pace. Indian buyers, particularly discoms, need to see the benefits of solar plus storage based supplies to become long term believers and provide the sort of momentum that will actually start making a dent on the country's dependence on coal, which has only been arrested for now, not reduced at all.