SECI invites bids for selection of electrolyser manufacturers for 1.5-GW capacity

The last date for submission of bids is September 5. The pre-bid meeting will be held on July 27.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has invited bids for the selection of electrolyser manufacturers under the National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM).

The selected manufacturers will create a total electrolyser manufacturing capacity of 1.6 gigawatts (GW) in India and will get a performance-linked incentive (PLI) under tranche-I of the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) programme.

According to the Request for Selection floated by SECI, the government's implementation agency for the SIGHT programme, a single-stage, two-envelope bidding procedure will be adopted in this process. The last date to submit the bids is 6 pm on September 5.

The electrolyser manufacturing incentive will be offered for the first five years, which will reduce in magnitude. In the first year, it will be Rs 4,440 crore, Rs 3,700 crore in the second year, Rs 2,960 crore in the third year, Rs 2,220 crore for the fourth year and Rs 1,480 crore in the fifth year. The five years for the incentives for electrolysers will be calculated from the date of commencement of manufacturing of electrolysers.

After being approved by the Union Cabinet on January 4, the government released a blueprint for its ambitious National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM) on January 13, with a total initial outlay of Rs 19,744 crore, including Rs 17,490 crore for incentives.

The government aims to produce 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen annually and make India a global green hydrogen hub.

Bidders will have to fulfil certain values of electrolyser performance such as specific energy consumption (SEC) and local value addition (LVA) for being eligible for the incentive. SEC (electricity used to produce 1 kg of green hydrogen), an integral part of the cost of green hydrogen production, should be equal to or less than 56 kWh of green hydrogen production.

LVA means the extent to which various parts, materials and equipment for electrolyser manufacturing are locally sourced. In this case, it should range from 40-80 percent for alkaline electrolysers and 30-70 percent for proton exchange membrane/anion exchange membrane solid oxide electrolysers, year-on-year.

The incentive for the quoted bid capacity will be calculated year-wise as a product of the following four components submitted by the bidder - quoted base support rate (in Rs./kW); domestic value addition (DVA); performance multiplier; and yearly sales.

The bids have been invited under two buckets - (i) Electrolyser manufacturing capacity based on any stack technology (1200 MW) and (ii) Electrolyser manufacturing capacity based on indigenously developed stack technology (300 MW).

Bidders submitting offers for the first bucket will have to bid for a minimum of 100 MW and a maximum of 300 MW manufacturing capacity. For the second bucket, bidders can submit offers for up to 300 MW

manufacturing capacity and it has no minimum cap. They will be allowed to bid for either or both the buckets and bids for the first bucket will be decided first.