SECI Issues NIT for 5000 MW Power From Renewable and Thermal Sources

SECI has issued an NIT for the procurement of 5000 MW power on the Round-The-Clock basis, from renewable energy projects, complemented with thermal power.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has issued a Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) for the procurement of 5000 MW power on Round-The-Clock based, from renewable energy projects, complemented with thermal power.

As per the NIT, the developments in renewable energy sector and the necessity to address the issues of intermittency, limited hours of supply and low capacity utilisation of transmission infrastructure make case for “reverse bundling”, wherein high-cost thermal power is allowed to be bundled with cheaper renewable energy and is provided round-the-clock to the Discom.

And, such bundling of RE power with thermal power can help in:

1. Bringing down the overall cost of power supplied to buying utilities;
2. Further penetration of renewable energy;
3. Overcoming the intermittency issues of RE power
4. Meeting the round-the-clock requirement of Discoms.

Accordingly, SECI has proposed to issue a tender for procurement 5000 MW power on the “Round-the-Clock” basis, from RE Power Projects, complemented with power from thermal power projects, from Developers, on a “Build-Own-Operate” basis.

The Request for Selection (RfS) document will be issued in due course and will be available for download from the ETS website.

Earlier in January, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) had issued a new draft policy for the supply of round-the-clock (RTC) power from renewable energy (solar, wind or small hydro) power projects. The power will be complemented with thermal power projects as and when needed.

“The main objective of the scheme is to provide RTC power to the Discoms through the bundling of renewable power with thermal power and to scale up renewable capacity additions. It will also facilitate fulfillment of the renewable purchase obligation (RPO) requirement of the obligated entities,” the ministry had issued.

In October 2019, SECI had issued an RfS for the selection of renewable energy developers for the “Round-The-Clock” supply of 400 MW renewable energy to the (200 MW) New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and (200 MW) Dadra & Nagar Haveli. (RTC-I)