The Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL) has extended the bid submission deadline for its tender for 700 MW of solar projects in the state’s Dholera Solar Park (Phase IX).

The new deadline for the submission of bids is May 30, 2020. Earlier, the deadline was April 30, 2020. The GUVNL has also extended the technical bid opening date from May 1, 2020, to June 1, 2020, while the financial bid opening date has now been scheduled for June 8, 2020, instead of May 8, 2020.

Out of the total 1,000 MW capacity (20×50) of Dhorela Solar Park, the auction process for 300 MW (6×50 MW) has already been completed.

In March 2020, the remaining 700 MW capacity was retendered, as reported previously by Mercom.

The ceiling tariff for the tender has been set at ₹2.92 (~$0.039)/kWh. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) had recently communicated that the upper ceiling tariffs would no longer be prescribed in future bids for solar and wind projects. However, since this capacity has been retendered out of the 1 GW capacity floated last year, it still comes with a ceiling tariff.

Asked if the ceiling tariff will remain the same, a senior executive of GUVNL told Mercom that the tariff cap mentioned earlier would not change.

Regarding the extension of the bid submission deadline, the official said, “Due to the nationwide lockdown caused by COVID-19 pandemic, we received a lot of requests from developers requesting for the extension of the deadline.”

The Dholera solar park is expected to cover an area of more than 27,000 acres upon completion to develop 5 GW of solar projects. According to a Gujarat state government release issued earlier, “The proposed solar park will attract investment of ₹250 billion (~$3.84 billion) and provide employment opportunities to more than 20,000 individuals.”

Recently, Mercom reported that GUVNL also announced the list of successful bidders in the auction for 500 MW of grid-connected solar projects (Phase VIII). The successful bidders were Vena Energy Clean Power Private Limited, which won a capacity of 40 MW at the quoted price of ₹2.61 (~$0.035)/kWh, Juniper Energy Green Power Limited which won a capacity of 190 MW at ₹2.63 (~$0.036)/kWh. Tata Power placed its bid for 200 MW but won a capacity of 120 MW in line with the bucket filling method at a tariff of ₹2.64 (~$0.037)/kWh.

Image credit: Thomas Lloyd Group / CC BY-SA