Pre-Bid meeting for 350 MW solar PV project bids under JNNSM Phase I Batch II convened

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Pre-Bid meeting for Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission Phase I Batch II of 350 MW through NVVN was held on Friday. This meeting was attended by prominent people of the Solar Industry in India, who interfaced with Government officials to discuss about and give suggestions regarding the RfS Document, PPA Document and other rules set forth by the officials for the upcoming bids. The meeting started off by a presentation by MNRE and NVVN officials, explaining the changes made to the process of bidding from the last time.

After this came the question and answer round. Mr. Sunil Jain from Green Infra started the discussions by pointing out the Share Premium of a company was not being considered for Net Worth calculation and how that was a deviation from the Company’s Act of 1956. In response the government officials claimed mis-representation of documents in the previous bids by a certain developer and how it led to stringent calculation mechanism and it had all rights to decide on Net Worth criteria for its bidding process.

The general mood of the developers seemed to oppose the Net Worth calculation criteria set forth by the government officials. Azure Power, which is one of the most prominent players in the Indian Solar Industry and is funded largely by International finance, went on to say that the current Net-Worth Calculation process would not make Azure eligible to participate for even one MW. Another sentiment brought up in the meeting was from the manufacturing community in India. Representatives from TATA BP and Indo Solar assured the developer community that there was no shortage of crystalline cells and modules in India fearing that most developers would go for imported Thin-Film rather than complying with domestic content clause for crystalline cells and modules.

Representative from Indo Solar went on to demand that two year performance in field should be necessary for thin film modules and the company’s must ensure take back of modules at the end of module life. The demands were in principle rejected by the officials saying that increasing the period from one year to two years will not solve any purpose and India’s laws for waste management were sufficient to deal with the environment impact of used up modules.

There were also discussions about the Capacity Utilization Factor and certain other clauses in the PPA that seemed contentious to the developer community. Most other discussions revolved around the 50 MW cap for a company/group of companies, Net Worth criteria, deadlines and allocation of last project to keep the total projects to the cap on 350 MW. Headway Solar (P) Ltd. represented by Mr. Jasmeet Khurana and Mr. Mayur Jain, was present at the meeting to represent its clients based in India as well as a delegation based in South Korea which is looking to invest in Indian Solar Power Sector. All developers who had raised issues at the time of the meeting, have submitted their suggestions in written to NVVN and these suggestions will be considered by the authorities and a formal reply will be brought out. www.headwaysolar.com

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