The Railway Energy Management Company joint venture created by Indian Railways and engineering consultancy Rites Ltd has invited bids for the development of 1 GW of solar generation capacity on the state rail company’s land.
Bidding is open until June 30, there is an electricity tariff ceiling of Rs2.71/kWh and bidders must lodge a Rs10 lakh bank guarantee.
The solar capacity will be packaged up into separate zones with contracts awarded through competitive bidding and an online reverse auction. Successful bidders will secure 25-year power purchase agreements.
The grid-connected solar projects can be developed on single sites or subdivided into various locations within a state as long as they have a minimum 5 MW capacity. Connectivity and long-term access until the power delivery point of each facility will be the responsibility of the developers and 50 MW-plus plants are required to be connected to national electricity transmission system operator the Power Grid Corporation in India. Smaller projects can be connected to state transmission utilities.
Solar modules used in the projects must meet IEC standards – IEC 61215 for crystalline silicon panels, IEC 61646 for thin film products and IEC 62108 for concentrator PV systems – or the equivalent Bureau of Indian Standards rating. The modules should include warranties of peak output wattage guaranteeing no less than 90% of performance after 10 years and 80% after 25.
The inverters and power conditioning units used must be warrantied for five years.
