India’s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has launched a tender for 1,200MW of solar PV with 600MW/2,400MWh of energy storage systems (ESS).
The state-owned public power company, one of the country’s largest generation entities, opened an invitation for bids (IFB) earlier this week (27 January).
NTPC has invited developers to submit projects that will connect to the Inter State Transmission System (ISTS) “anywhere in India”. It will accept enquiries from prospective bidders until 28 February, on which date a pre-bid conference will be held.
Contracts will be awarded on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis. Projects must be of a minimum 50MW sizing and upwards in increments of 10MW, while the maximum capacity allowed to a single bidder will be 600MW of solar PV capacity paired with 300MW/1,200MWh of energy storage output and capacity.
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NTPC stipulated that 4-hour duration energy storage must be added at 0.5MW output and 2MWh capacity per megawatt of installed solar.
The power generation company launched a tender for the same capacity of solar and ESS in June last year.
NTPC subsidiary NTPC Renewable Energy Limited was a recent winner in a solar-plus-storage tender hosted by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), as reported by Energy-Storage.news earlier this month.
NTPC Renewable Energy Limited won the right to enter 25-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s SECI with 500MW of capacity bid, at a tariff of IR3.52/kWh (US$0.041).
As with the new NTPC tender, SECI had required every 1MW of PV to be paired with 0.5MW/2MWh of storage.
In July last year, a report from market research firm Mercom India said that 90% of India’s 219MWh cumulative battery energy storage installations to that date was paired with solar PV generation.
Telangana Power Generation Corporation launches tender through VGF scheme
Telangana Power Generation Corporation (TGGENCO), responsible for power generation in the southern Indian state of Telangana, has launched its first tender for standalone battery energy storage system (BESS) projects.
TGGENCO’s pilot project seeks 250MW/500MWh of standalone BESS in the state, through tariff-based competitive bidding, again under a build-own-operate model.
The procurement will be supported by Viability Gap Funding (VGF) through India’s Union government, which has pledged to accelerate the uptake of energy storage in support of the country’s decarbonisation, renewable energy and electricity access goals.
Sector expert Debmalya Sen, lead for energy in India at the World Economic Forum (WEF) commented via LinkedIn that this makes Telangana the fifth Indian state to tender for energy storage through the VGF scheme to date. Sen also noted that it is India’s 25th standalone BESS tender to date and the third already to launch in 2025.
Previous tenders have been launched this month by Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam (GUVNL), the electricity sector procurement and supervising organisation for the state of Gujarat and public sector hydropower company NHPC.
VGF will be included at whichever is the lower amount at IR2.7 million (US$1,155)/MWh of battery capacity or 30% of project CapEx.
BESS must cycle twice per day, with TGGENCO to utilise the systems on an on-demand basis according to the needs of state electricity distribution companies (‘Discoms’) through entering battery energy storage purchase agreement (BESPA) contracts over 12-year terms.
Tender documents will be available until 21 February, ahead of the tender opening on 25 February.
