SECI’s recent 10GW solar tender that required power generators to set up equipment manufacturing facility reportedly got tepid response even after tweaking the tender with increased ceiling tariff. The final date of bid submission was Monday.
According to ET , the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI)first floated the tender to boost local manufacturing of solar equipment in May this year , however the industry looked disinterested and forced the bid submission to be postponed six times.
A government official speaking to the publication said that “SECI will take a call whether to cancel the tender.”He added “The final set of changes has already been made to the tender conditions. It is unlikely that the bid submission deadline will be further extended.”
The publication citing sources notes that Azure Power bid for 2,000 MW power project linked with 600 MW solar equipment manufacturing capacity, while most of the other players stayed away from tender.
The manufacturing linked tender was tweaked several times to attract the industry players. SECI even increased ceiling tariff for the tender by 10 paise to Rs 2.85 per unit. The tariff was increased after the industry complained of rising interest costs and rupee depreciation dampening the economic viability of the projects required to be set up under the tender.