SECI Releases Tender for Round-The-Clock Renewable-Thermal Bundled Projects worth 5,000 MW

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has announced that it has issued a tender for selection of renewable energy (RE) developers for supply of 5,000 MW of round-the-clock (RTC) power from grid-connected RE projects.

This would be bundled with power from coal-based thermal power projects in the country under tariff-based competitive bidding. The last date for the submission of bids is 4 May, 2020.

“SECI shall enter into PPA with successful developers for a period of 25 years from the date as per the provisions of PPA. A composite single tariff for renewable energy, complemented with thermal energy shall be quoted by the bidders,” SECI said in an announcement.

The PSU further that bidders will be allowed to submit their bid by proposing a composite single tariff. Previously this month, MNRE had removed the upper ceiling in a move to boost investment in solar and wind power projects. It had issued a directive to SECI, NTPC, and state government departments.

The developers would have to supply power on RTC basis, if required, keeping at least 80 per cent availability on an annual basis.

“The renewable power developer is required to supply at least 51 per cent of annual energy from RE sources, including energy storage systems and the balance may be drawn from existing coal-based thermal energy projects,” SECI said.

Firms can combine storage systems for ensuring the required minimum annual availability of 80 per cent is achieved. However, a minimum of 51 per cent of energy shall be dispatched from renewable sources and this percentage should also include dispatch from the storage system, if RE sources are used to store energy in the systems.

“The developer shall set-up a generating system for supply of RE power and may complement the RE power through supply of thermal power from thermal generating system in order to meet the commitment of RTC supply,” the tender said.

The renewable energy power sources would include solar, wind, small hydro, or their combination, with or without any energy storage system. The option of selecting the type and mix of renewable sources, and the usage of ESS would remain with the generator.

The necessity to address the issues of intermittency, limited hours of supply and low capacity utilization of transmission infrastructure gave way to reverse bundling. In this, high cost coal-based thermal power is allowed to be bundled with cheaper renewable energy, and is provided round-the-clock to the distribution company.