GUVNL Awards Gensol 250 MW/500 MWh BESS Project

Gujarat: Gensol Bags Rs 600cr Order From PGVCL For PV Project

Gujarat-based, state electricity regulation board Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) declared Gensol Engineering as the lowest bidder for the project in a energy storage tender issued by them. The EPC company emerged as the lowest bidder for its 250 MW/500 MWh standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) project.

GUVNL released the tender for this project last year. Based on the tender results, Gensol Engineering was recorded as the lowest bidder at the quoted tariff of Rs. 372,978/MW per month. Some bidders which failed to qualify for the project are IndiGrid 2, JSW Neo Energy, Pace Digitek Infra, Continental Milkose, ACME Solar Holdings, JBM Renewables, Hinduja Renewables, Vikram Solar Cleantech, Apraava Energy, Solarcraft Power India 2, and SJVN Green Energy.

This year, the government finalized a structure to operationalize Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) project with a capacity of 4,000 Megawatt-Hours (MWh). Through this funding, the government plans to encourage the setting up of BESS capacity to meet the fast-growing needs of power demand as well as energy transition. Through this, the government actively seeks to encourage the use of extra solar energy during the day and extra wind energy during the evening, which would go to waste if adequate storage system is not deployed to store and utilize it when needed. 

In the last three years there has been a surge in the number of tenders issued by central tendering authorities like the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and state tendering agencies to boost the growth of energy storage systems. Energy storage tenders in different formats like peak power, Round the Clock tender, Firm and Despatable Renewable Energy Tenders (FDRE) have been issued in the last five years and the quantum is only increase. Besides BESS, several companies including the renewable behemoths like Adani Green have now also showed their interest in Pumped Hydro Projects too.