The Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company Limited (GESCOM) has reissued the tender to empanel agencies to design, supply, construct, and commission 10 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar installations on residential structures in seven districts in Karnataka under the net metering system. Bidar, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal, Ballari, and Vijayanagara are the districts. The winning bidder will be responsible for operations and maintenance of the project for 5 five years. The tender has been floated under the ‘Soura Gruha Yojane’ for the financial year 2021-22. The bid submission deadline is September 24, 2021.
As per the tender guidelines, to be eligible, the bidder must be either a system integrator or a module manufacturer, or both. In the previous five financial years, the bidder must have executed a minimum cumulative capacity of 80 per cent of the capacity put to tender, i.e., 400 kW. Alternatively, in the recent five financial years, a bidder registered as a micro, small, and medium firm (MSME) must have successfully completed a minimum cumulative capacity of 40 per cent of the capacity put to tender, i.e., 200 kW.
In June 2021, the Ministry of Power (MoP) issued amendments to the Electricity (Rights of Consumers) 2020 Rules concerning net metering for rooftop solar installations. Under the amendment, net metering can be set up by the prosumer for loads up to 500 kW or up to the sanctioned load, whichever is lower. For loads beyond 500 kW, gross metering must be used. For the net metering facility, a single bidirectional energy meter must be used at the point of supply where the energy imported from the grid and the energy exported from the grid-interactive rooftop solar system of a prosumer will be computed at two different tariffs. Additionally, the order also grants state regulatory commissions the provision to introduce time-of-the-day tariffs where prosumers are incentivized to install energy storage for storing the solar energy or feeding it to the grid during peak hours.
