The Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited’s (SECI) tender for setting up 1.2 GW of renewable projects with guaranteed peak power supply has been oversubscribed by 420 MW.

The list of bidders and their quoted capacities from the technical bidding round are as follows:

In August 2019, SECI issued the for setting up 1.2 GW of renewable projects connected with the ISTS and with a guaranteed peak power supply (ISTS-VII). Projects were expected to have at least two components – an energy storage system (ESS) component and a renewable energy generating component. The RE generating component can be a solar system, a wind energy system, or a hybrid system of both technologies.

In its tender, SECI specified that projects selected under this RfS would be eligible for two-part tariffs: Peak Tariff and Off-Peak Tariff. Energy generated during the off-peak hours would be eligible for a flat tariff payment ₹2.70 (~$0.03)/kWh while the energy generated during peak hours would be purchased at the tariff discovered through e-reverse auction.

In December 2019, the Solar Energy Corporation of India extended the bid submission deadline from November 29, 2019, to December 16, 2019, and revised the tariff for hybrid power developers during off-peak hours to ₹2.88 (~$0.04)/ kWh. It also revised the required earnest money deposit to ₹750,000 (~$10,501.9)/MW from ₹600,000 (~$ 8,680)/MW earlier.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, SECI has tendered 12.2 GW under the ISTS program (Tranche I to VIII) and has auctioned about 6.44 GW under ISTS Tranche I to VI.

SECI has been issuing unique tenders to offset the intermittent nature of renewable energy and promote local manufacturing. In October 2019, SECI issued a tender to procure 400 MW (2×200 MW) of renewable energy on round-the-clock basis. Recently the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) also came up with a draft plan to supply round-the-clock power from renewable (solar, wind, and hydro) projects, which would be complemented with power from thermal projects.

In November 2019, Mercom reported that SECI had also received a good response for its 7 GW solar tender that has been linked with a manufacturing component. The tender was oversubscribed by 1,000 MW.

Adani Green Energy had submitted its bid for 4 GW of solar projects and 1 GW of manufacturing component, followed by Azure and Navyug, which submitted bids for 2 GW of projects each.