India's Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) has invited bids for the supply of 2.25 GW round-the-clock (RTC) power from renewable energy projects, complemented with power from non-renewable energy sources or storage and connected to the interstate transmission system (ISTS).
Renewable project developers (RPD) will be expected to set up the renewable energy project and complement it with power from any other source or storage, including building a dedicated transmission network up the interconnection point.
Already commissioned renewable energy projects will not be considered for this tender, but those under construction and not yet commissioned will be. Non-renewable energy projects already commissioned can be considered, however, provided these have spare generation capacity that can be made available for long term power supply.
A single bid can offer a minimum of 250 MW contracted capacity and maximum of 2.25 GW. Projects can be located anywhere in India.
Renewable energy technologies accepted under this tender are solar PV and wind, while non renewable energy projects can be based on domestic coal as fuel or on coal from imported sources. Power generated will be supplied to SECI under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) which the latter will sell to MPSEZ Utilities Limited (MUL).
The tender is designed as per the Ministry of Power's guidelines for RTC power procurement that aim to provide the same to discoms thereby facilitate the scale up of renewable capacity addition and achieve economies of scale. It will also facilitate discoms meet their renewable purchase obligations (RPO).
Dubbed RTC III, this is SECI's 3rd RTC tender as under RTC I it awarded 400 MW capacity for INR 2.90 per kWh to ReNew Power (see India's 1st RTC PPA Signed Between ReNew Power & SECI). RTC II awarded 2.5 GW capacity to Hindustan Thermal Projects for the lowest bid of INR 3.01 per kWh for 250 MW, among other winners (see India PV News Snippets).
Launched on September 2, 2022, bidders have time till October 12, 2022 to submit relevant tender documents. Further details are available on SECI's website.
SECI's RTC III tender followed another RTC tender by NTPC Limited's subsidiary NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN). An expression of interest (EOI) from NVVN launched on September 1, 2022 is soliciting supply of renewable energy and renewable energy RTC power from solar, hydro, wind, pumped storage, renewable energy with battery energy storage system (BESS) and hybrid generators.
Power needs to be supplied on medium term and long-term basis. Projects can either by commercially operational or should be commissioned by December 31, 2023. Last date to submit EOI application is September 20, 2022.