Continuing with its tender spree, the Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. (SECI) has now issued tenders for the development of both wind and solar projects.

SECI has announced tender for 1,800 MW of interstate transmission system (ISTS)-connected wind power projects under Tranche-VIII to be developed anywhere in India. The detailed Request for Selection (RfS) will be available for downloading by March 29, 2019. This follows the tender issued by SECI to set up 1,200 MW of ISTS-connected wind power projects (tranche-VII) on a pan India basis.

SECI has also tendered 2,000 MW of grid-connected solar projects to be set up with central government support in the form of viability gap funding (VGF). These projects will be set up under the Central Public Sector Undertaking (CPSU) Phase-ll program by government producers. The detailed RfS will be available for downloading by March 25, 2019. The second phase of this program of setting up 12 GW of grid-connected solar PV projects recently received the President of India’s approval.

Recently, SECI had issued a tender for the utilization of water bodies (reservoirs, dams, lakes) in Tamil Nadu for the development of 250 MW of floating solar PV capacity.

On March 1, 2019, SECI also issued another lot of tenders. The tenders were for setting up 750 MW of grid-connected solar PV power projects in Rajasthan (Tranche-II Non-Solar Park), for 500 MW of grid-connected solar power projects in Tamil Nadu (Phase-1, Non-Solar Park).

It has also issued a tender for setting up 14 MW of solar power projects with 42 MWh battery energy storage system (7MW/21MWh each) in Leh and Kargil division. Both Leh and Kargil will have a 7 MW solar project with battery storage of 21 MWh each.

According to the tender trajectory issued by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), approximately 30 GW were expected to be tendered in FY 2018-19. The tendered capacity has exceeded the intended capacity.