GUVNL 500 MW Solar Tender Attracts Only 3 Bids Worth 430 MW

GUVNL has revealed all the technically qualified bidders for its 500 MW solar PV power projects tender. Receiving only 3 bids worth 430 MW.

The Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) has revealed all the technically qualified bidders who will now participate in the price bids stage and e-reverse auction for the tender for the purchase of power from 500 MW of grid-connected solar PV power projects to be set up in Gujarat (Phase VIII). The state utility has announced that it has received a total of 3 technically qualified bids worth a combined 430 MW of solar power project capacity.

The three bidders are Tata Power, Juniper Green and Vena Energy – who submitted bids worth 200 MW, 190 MW and 40 MW, respectively.

GUVNL had issued the tender for the 500 MW solar power projects in February. As per the tender, the scope of work for the successful bidders will include the setting up of solar PV power project(s) including the transmission network up to the delivery point at its own cost.

As per the tender notification, the financial bids for all technically cleared bidders were to be opened on March 18, 2019, followed by the e-reverse auction. However, according to reports, the e-reverse auction has been rescheduled for March 16, 2020.

The objective for issuance of the tender is to fulfill the renewable power purchase obligation (RPO) and to meet the future requirements of Discoms, GUVNL intends to procure solar power up to a capacity of 500 MW (Phase VIII). GUVNL shall enter into PPA with successful bidders for a period of 25 years from the scheduled commercial operation date of the project.

The maximum tariff payable to the selected bidder was set at Rs 2.65/ unit. And the number has been deemed, by industry stakeholders, as the key reason for the lukewarm response the tender has received.

As per the RfS, projects under construction, projects which are not yet commissioned and projects already commissioned but do not have any long-term PPA with any agency and selling power on short-term or merchant plant basis will, however, be considered, in case these projects are not already accepted under any other Central or State Schemes and do not have any obligations towards existing buyers. And solar projects will also be allowed to be set up in the existing wind farms which is already connected to the grid subject to availability of spare capacity for RE integration.