The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has issued an expression of interest (EoI) to empanel rooftop solar system integrators.

The EoI seeks system integrators for the Indian Solar Market Aggregation for Rooftops (I-SMART) program under which solar systems will be installed in the states of Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. The rooftop solar systems will also be installed in union territories (UTs) of Daman and Diu, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, and Jammu and Kashmir.

The last date for the submission of bids is March 10, 2020. A pre-empanelment meeting will be held in the first week of March.

The I-SMART program is supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the Ministry of New and Renewable energy (MNRE). This initiative aims to help residents, businesses, and governments to take advantage of a range of benefits offered in the select geographies. I-SMART intends to partner with qualified vendors to deliver rooftop solar to commercial and industrial (C&I) customers in Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. In each region, I-SMART has an aggregated demand of 10-20 MW of rooftop solar as of December 31, 2019. The estimated aggregated demand is greater than 100 MW in all the regions together.

The I-SMART qualified vendors will be selected based on their installed rooftop capacity in the C&I space, their ability to install rooftop solar systems greater than 50 kW, to meet the demands of the C&I sector, and their reputation among customers and other key industry stakeholders for quality and customer experience.

The bidder must also have completed the maintenance work of solar PV-based power projects and should have undertaken maintenance contracts for at least ten years.  Interested bidders also need to demonstrate their financial turnover in the last three financial years or should have a certificate stating its financial soundness, for instance, its CRISIL rating.

Recently, TERI invited bids for battery energy storage systems (BESS) on turnkey basis under the U.S.-India Collaborative for Smart Distribution System with Storage (UI-ASSIST) initiative with the BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) in the national capital territory of Delhi.

TERI has also built a partnership with the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society’s (BRLPS) JEEViKA program through an innovative institutional model to make clean energy products affordable to local women-based self-help groups (SHGs).

Anjana is a news editor at Mercom India. Before joining Mercom, she held roles of senior editor, district correspondent, and sub-editor for The Times of India, Biospectrum and The Sunday Guardian. Before that, she worked at the Deccan Herald and the Asianlite as chief sub-editor and news editor. She has also contributed to The Quint, Hindustan Times, The New Indian Express, Reader’s Digest (UK edition), IndiaSe (Singapore-based magazine) and Asiaville. Anjana holds a Master’s degree in Geography from North Bengal University, and a diploma in mass communication and journalism from Guru Ghasidas University, Bhopal.