The Railway Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL) has floated a tender to develop MW ground-mount solar project on vacant parcels of lands owned by the Indian Railways. Developers will also be required to procure connectivity with the transmission system owned by the state transmission utility or the central transmission utility. Further, the connectivity must be set up through a dedicated transmission line for individual or pooled projects. As per the tender document, the zonal railways will enter into a power purchase agreement with the successful developer for 25 years. The tariff quoted by the bidder will include statutory taxes, duties, levies, and cess among others. Prospective bidders must submit an earnest money deposit of Rs 400,000 and the last date to submit the bids is August 26, 2021.
The declared annual capacity utilization factor of the projects must be at least 17 per cent and it must be set up only using commercially established and operating technologies. To be eligible, the bidder must record a net worth greater than or equal to Rs 8 million per MW of the quoted capacity as of the last date of the previous financial year. Additionally, the bidder’s minimum annual turnover must be at least Rs 4.145 million per MW of the quoted capacity during the last financial year.
REMCL is a joint venture of the Indian Railways and Rail India Technical and Economic Service Limited.Earlier this month, REMCL invited bids to set up a 15 MW solar project with a 7 MW/14 MWh battery energy storage system on railway land at Butibori, Nagpur. Last year, REMCL invited bids to develop up to 400 MW of grid-connected solar projects on vacant lands of the Indian Railways under the capex model.