Following the historic results of achieving low tariff of `1.38 per unit in its Renewable Energy Service Company (RESCO) I & II rooftop solar tender last year, MPUVNL has now invited bids for 25 MW solar rooftop projects under RESCO mode for industries in Madhya Pradesh.
700 industries in Mandideep industrial area close to Bhopal have been identified for the project. The project is being implemented jointly with MP Industrial Development Corporation (MPIDC), which has provided land on lease to the industries. MPIDC will be a co-signatory to the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and is offering payment assurance for the developer.
There is no subsidy in the project. The aim of the exercise is to derisk the project and to have an appropriate allocation of risk between developer, industry, MPIDC & MPUVN.
The World Bank (WB) through State Bank of India (SBI) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) through Punjab National Bank (PNB) are providing concessional loan to successful bidders under the project. Concessional funding from IREDA is also available. ISA has acknowledged MP’s RESCO projects, by web-casting the pre-bid proceedings to ISA member-countries and by sending a member from MPUVN as a part of ISA Expert Group to the Republic of Ghana for joint efforts to roll out Rooftop Solar projects in Ghana. PwC is the transaction advisor to New & Renewable Energy, Madhya Pradesh Government and MPUVN for the project. EY is the SBI-WB Technical Assistance (TA) consortium lead to MPUVN.
Around 34 bidders from across the country attended the pre-bid meeting and got the opportunity to interact with MPUVN representatives. Important topics, such as parameters on project, RFP features, Power Purchase Agreement clauses, compensation and termination clauses, Data Room, etc were discussed in detail in today’s meeting.
Led by Manu Srivastava, Principal Secretary, New and Renewable Energy Department, Madhya Pradesh, officials from MPUVN, MPIDC, World Bank and International Solar Alliance (ISA) explained the bid design, capacity requirements, data room access for developers’ easy understanding and welcomed their suggestions to start the rooftop project work on time.
Manu Shrivastava said, “Rooftop solar project under RESCO model is an attractive option for industries to implement and achieve significant savings on their electricity bills. MPUVN and MPIDC have joined hands in this effort to aggregate demand and achieve scale for a competitive tariff from RESCOs.
For the first time, state agencies have come together for implementation of a market-based rooftop solar tender for industries without subsidy support from Central or the State.”
A Data Room has been created under the SBI-WB TA program by EY which contains site wise survey details and past electricity bills for such sites. The access to data room will be provided to bidders who pay and have already paid the bid processing fee. The RfP and the PPA are available on https://www.mpeproc.gov.in.
