State-run Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has invited proposals for setting up ISTS-connected renewable energy (RE) projects for supply of 1,260-megawatt (MW) Firm and Dispatchable RE power (FDRE), which will be supplied to Delhi and Gift City in Gujarat.

The projects will be in a demand following manner, from ISTS-connected RE power projects in India, on a build-own operate (BOO) basis. The project completion period is 24 months, the company said.

SECI will enter into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the successful bidders selected based on the RfS (request for selection) for purchase of power for a period of 25 years based on the terms, conditions and provisions of the RfS and PPA.

The last date for submitting proposals is November 14, 2023.

“Out of the total tendered capacity of 1,260 MW, 1,250 MW capacity procured by SECI from the above projects has been provisioned to be sold to BSES Rajdhani Power and BSES Yamuna Power, Delhi, and remaining 10 MW has been provisioned to be sold to GIFT Power Company , Gujarat,” SECI added.

Power supply

These three entities shall be the buying entities under the RfS, while the SECI will be an intermediary nodal agency for procurement and sale of such power to the buying entities entirely on back-to-back basis, based on due performance by the RE power developer (RPD) as well as the entities.

The identification of land, installation and ownership of the projects, along with obtaining connectivity and necessary approvals and interconnection with the ISTS network for supply of power to SECI, will be under the scope of the RPD.

SECI said that energy storage systems (ESS) shall mandatorily constitute part of the project.

It clarified that ESS charged using a source other than RE power would not qualify as RE power. Besides, the ESS may be owned by the RPD or may be tied-up separately with a third party by the RPD, for supply of power.

The cumulative contracted capacity to be allocated to a bidder including its parent, affiliate or ultimate parent or any group company shall be limited to 630 MW, SECI said.

The projects can be located anywhere in India. For a single project, the RE generation components, along with ESS, may either be co-located, or may be located at different locations.

As of June 2023, a total of 176.49 gigawatts (GW) renewable energy capacity has been installed in the country out of the total installed electricity capacity of 421.9 GW. In addition, 88.81 GW of renewable energy capacity is under implementation and 51.43 GW of capacity is under tendering.