Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has revealed the results of a reverse auction for solar PV paired with battery storage that will connect to the Inter State Transmission System (ISTS).
The state-run company announced four winning bids at IR3.52/kWh (US$0.041) and one at IR3.53 at the end of last year (31 December 2024). SECI intends to enter 25-year power purchase agreements with the five successful developers.
A total of 2,000MW of solar PV (paired with 1,000MW/4,000MWh of energy storage) had been eligible for award and 4,520MW of capacity had been shortlisted to enter the competitive solicitation’s auction stage.
The tender was launched last summer by SECI, which is administered by the government Ministry of Power’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). SECI sought proposals for build-own-operate (BOO) assets, from which the state corporation would sell energy to Buying Entities that could include electricity distribution companies (‘discoms’), utilities, corporate customers or other offtakers.
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Developers’ scope of work would include setting up the transmission infrastructure to connect their power plants to the ISTS. SECI had made the tender technology agnostic in terms of energy storage but required 0.5MW/2MWh of energy storage system (ESS) technology to be paired with every megawatt of solar PV.
NTPC, Reliance subsidiaries win lion’s share of awarded capacity
Singapore-headquartered engineering firm Sembcorp already said it had been a winner and received its letter of award (LOA) from the Indian government in mid-December.
As reported by Energy-Storage.news at that time, Sembcorp won the rights to construct a 150MW solar PV plant with a 300MWh battery energy storage system (BESS).
Sembcorp’s entered bid was among the lower-cost tranche of winners, joined by state-owned power producer National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and renewable energy developers Solarcraft Power India and Hero Solar Energy.
As seen in the table below, they were joined by Reliance NU Suntech, a subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries which bid in at IR3.53/kWh. Reliance NU Suntech’s win had also been revealed earlier in December by local media reports.
| Bidder’s name | Bid quantity (MW) | Tariff (INR/kWh) | Awarded capacity (MW) |
| NTPC Renewable Energy Limited | 500 | 3.52 | 500 |
| Sembcorp Green Infra Private Limited | 150 | 3.52 | 150 |
| Solarcraft Power India 8 Private Limited | 150 | 3.52 | 150 |
| Hero Solar Energy Private Limited | 270 | 3.52 | 270 |
| Reliance NU Suntech Private Limited (erstwhile Siyom Hydro Power Private Limited) | 1000 | 3.53 | 930 |
Some big names in the Indian energy sector made it through to the e-reverse auction stage but didn’t win, including JSW Neo Energy and ReNew Solar Power. Full results can be seen here.
JSW Renew Energy Five appeals CERC decision to deny SECI tariff
In other SECI tender news, power generation, transmission and trading company JSW Energy is filing an appeal against a recent decision by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to deny a tariff it was awarded.
JSW Energy subsidiary JSW Renew Energy Five had won a competitive solicitation for standalone battery energy storage hosted by SECI.
The developer received a letter of award for its bid to construct 500MW/1,000MWh of BESS in January 2023. However, SECI’s tariff proposal filed with the national regulator was not approved and last week (2 January) CERC issued an order to that effect.
According to a JSW Energy announcement to the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE India), CERC had said the proposed tariff was ‘not aligned with the prevailing market prices due to delay by SECI in signing the Battery Energy Storage Purchase Agreement and the Battery Energy Storage Sale Agreement.’
‘We are in the process of filing an appeal against the order,’ the JSW Energy statement to the NSE India said.
