Thursday, January 23, 2014: The recent round of bidding for solar projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) has got an amazing response from solar project developers. There were bids from 68 companies for 122 projects totaling 2,170 MW, opposed to an allocated target of 750 MW.
According to thehindubusinessline.com, the US-headquartered Azure Power (200 MW), Welspun (160 MW), IL&FS (150 MW) and Essel Infra (100 MW) are the major bidders. Under the ‘JNNSM Phase II’, the rollout for bidding by the Government-owned Solar Energy Corporation of India, project developers bid for a capital grant from the Government, or ‘viability gap funding’. Winners in the bid would be those who seek for the least amount of funding for selling their power at a fixed tariff of Rs 5.45 per kWhr to the Corporation.
The Phase II process also divided the 750 MW on offer in an equal way into those projects for which the developers needed to use locally made equipment, and those that didn’t have any such restrictions. So 375 MW were on ‘domestic content requirement (DCR)’ route, and the other 375 MW under ‘open’ category.
The bidders expressed a marked preference for the ‘open’ category with 86 projects worth 1,470 MW that were bid for under the ‘open’ category, where the need for ‘viability gap funding’ is going to be quite low. In the DCR category, bids were submitted for 36 projects for a total of 700 MW. Out of the 68 companies, 13 have given bids under both categories.
