Close on the heels of annulling a bidding for the procurement of 1,000-MW power from grid connected solar PV projects, the Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency (UPNEDA) has re-invited online bids for 500 MW solar power through tariff-based competitive bidding.

The deadline to submit bids is August 28. The earlier bid was cancelled as the tariffs quoted by the bidders were too high. “We decided to go in for re-bidding as we are sure of discovering lower tariffs in the range of `3.05-`3.10/kWh,” said Alok Kumar, principal secretary, Energy, government of UP.

Talking to FE, an official of UPNEDA said, “Instead of tendering for 1000 MW at once, we have split the capacity into two tenders of 500 MW each. By reducing the quantum, we hope to see better competition. Once the first tranche of 500 MW is auctioned, we will issue the tender for the other half,” he said, adding that the project completion timeframe has also been increased.

“For a project of up to 250 MW at a single location, the project completion timeframe is 21 months, while for a project of more than 250 MW at a single location, the commissioning timeframe is 24 months.”

As FE had reported on July 27, UPNEDA had cancelled the 1000-MW auction as it felt that the developers had quoted high tariffs in the reverse auction conducted on July 10. Of the 13 companies that took part in the auction, Mahoba Solar, an Adani group company, quoted the lowest tariff of `3.48/kWh to develop 250 MW of projects, along with Maheshwari Mining & Energy (MMEPL).

Source: https://www.financialexpress.com/