Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) has issued a call for bids to establish a 400 MW/800 MWh standalone battery energy storage system (BESS), with an additional green shoe option of 400 MW/800 MWh. The deadline for bid submissions is October 16, 2024.
Interested bidders are required to pay a document fee of ₹29,500 (approximately $351.69) along with a document processing fee of ₹1.5 million (around $17,880.38) plus 18% GST. Additionally, they must provide an earnest money deposit of ₹500,000 (roughly $5,956.85) and a performance bank guarantee amounting to ₹1.25 million per MW (about $14,901.89 per MW).
The project entails setting up a BESS, with the main objective being to ensure that the energy storage facility is available to GUVNL for charging and discharging on demand. The chosen contractor will be responsible for establishing the BESS and its integration with the state transmission network.
Bidders have the option to be offered the greenshoe option, which allows for an additional capacity. The BESS is required to be charged using power from Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation (GETCO) and must inject power back into the GETCO network based on dispatch instructions from the State Load Dispatch Center (SLDC), in coordination with GUVNL.
GUVNL will supply the necessary power for charging the BESS in line with the minimum system efficiency stipulated in the agreement. Bidders must ensure that the BESS is available for at least two operational cycles per day and guarantee a minimum system availability of 95% on an annual basis. Failure to meet these requirements will result in liquidated damages equal to twice the capacity charges for any capacity that is not made available.
Bidders are also required to have operational technologies in place that minimize technology risk and facilitate the timely commissioning of the project. Furthermore, the bidders’ net worth must be equal to or exceed ₹7.4 million per MW (about $88,217.99) of the quoted capacity as of the last day of the previous financial year or at least seven days before the bid submission deadline.
In a recent development, GUVNL had called for bids to purchase power from 500 MW of grid-connected solar power projects (Phase XXV) to be established across India, with an additional greenshoe option for 500 MW more. Earlier in June 2024, Gensol Engineering emerged as the successful bidder in GUVNL’s auction for setting up pilot projects of 250 MW/500 MWh standalone BESS in Gujarat, under tariff-based global competitive bidding (Phase III).
