Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (RRVUNL) has floated a tender to establish a 500 MW/1,000 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) along with a greenshoe option of 500 MW/1000 MWh. The last date of bid submission is December 16, 2024. The total capacity will be distributed across the Giral Lignite Power Project in Barmer, Suratgarh Thermal Power Station in Suragarth, and Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Prasaran Nigam’s substations at Sakatputa, Kota, and Heerapura, Jaipur, all of which are RRUVNL’s generation facilities.
According to the tender guidelines, bidders have to submit a document fee of Rs 29,500, a document processing fee of Rs 1.5 million plus 18 per cent GST, an earnest money deposit of Rs 1.07 million/MW and a performance bank guarantee for Rs 2.65 million/MW. The bidder’s net worth should not be less than Rs 11 million/MW of the quoted capacity as of the last date of the previous financial year. The minimum annual turnover of the bidder must be Rs 16.1 million/MW of the quoted capacity as of the previous financial year.
The developer has to ensure the system is available for two charge-discharge cycles per day. The procurement is based on power. The developer has to guarantee a minimum of 95 per cent system availability monthly and the BESS must allow RRVUNL to charge and discharge on demand. The project will be eligible for viability gap funding (VGF) support. The maximum VGF allowed to each developer is Rs 2.7 million/MWh or 30 per cent of the project’s capital cost, whichever is lower.
Furthermore, the minimum bid size is 250 MWh (125 MW x 2 hours), with a maximum of 125 MW/250 MWh per location and 17,500 square meters of land allocated per 125 MW/250 MWh project. The project must be commissioned within 18 months from the battery energy storage purchase agreement’s effective date.
