SECI defers bid submission deadline for 97 MW solar project till May 21

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State-owned SECI on April 29 again extended deadline for submitting bids for another renewable energy project as some of the queries of bidders have not been addressed yet.

The last date for submission of the bids for setting up 97.5 MWP (megawatt peak) grid connected rooftop solar PV system was April 30, 2019, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) said on April 29.

In a notice on its web portal, SECI stated, the last date of bid submission both online and offline is hereby extended till May 21, 2019, 1700 hours. The techno-commercial bid opening shall be carried out from 1100 hours on May 22, 2019.

"As some of the queries of the bidders remained, SECI has chosen to extend the bid submission deadline to May 21," an industry source said.

A pre-bid meeting for this auction was held on March 7.

The tender was floated on February 26, the source said.

Last week, SECI had extended deadlines for two of its renewable energy projects.

On April 22, SECI extended bids submission deadline for the third time for manufacturing-linked 3GW solar power tender till May 14.

SECI again, on April 23, extended deadline to submit bids to set up 1,200 megawatt (MW) solar-wind hybrid power projects till May 7.

It is a nodal agency of the central government for auctioning renewable energy projects in the country.

Earlier this month, a survey revealed that several power-consuming small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India are hesitant to install rooftop solar panels due to perceived performance risks.

The survey titled 'Scaling Up Rooftop Solar in SME Sector in India' conducted by global consultancy giant Deloitte across 150 MSMEs in six industrial clusters said that "the level of awareness about rooftop solar was quite low among the sample surveyed, many high-power consuming SMEs were hesitant to install rooftop solar because of the perceived performance risks."