After cancelling a major solar-plus-storage tender in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, even after holding an auction, NLC India has now released a new tender with a reduced energy storage component, as expected.
The state-run mining and power firm issued the new tender for 2x10MW solar projects to be combined with just 8MWh of storage, down from the 28MWh of storage set for the original tender. The capacity will be located at Attam Pahad and Dolly Gunj, Port Blair, South Andaman and the tender includes O&M services for a 10-year period.
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The deadline for bid submissions is 27 March 2018.
Indian solar EPC firm Mahindra Susten, the winner of the first scrapped auction, had expressed disappointment at the government’s meddling with the original tender, but said it was willing to continue working closely with the authorities on this promising hybrid technology.
Sunil Jain, chief executive and executive director of Delhi-headquartered renewable energy developer Hero Future Energies, which also partook in the original auction, told PV Tech: “The industry is very disappointed especially on the storage front. A lot of tenders with storage have been cancelled and that does not send the right signal.”
He added: “Industry is ready for storage but if there is no proper policy in place I’m afraid we will lose out.”
The retender has at least been swift and the industry will be hoping that a successful auction can take place and then honoured on this second occasion.
