NTPC’s first 28MWh auction for storage based solar plant in Andaman & Nicobar island has failed to generate suitable response from vendors forcing the company to extend the bid submission date twice in the last one month. According to people close to the development the bid closing date for 24MWh plant at Manglutan has been extended to August 24, while for 3.4 MWhr Chidiyatapu plant in South Andaman, has been extended to August 28 from August 3. The original date for bid submission was July 3. Vendors that FE spoke to have expressed concerns ranging from clarity on anti-dumping duty, RFPs getting clubbed together, vendor tie-ups and land aggregation for their non-participation. Varun Jairath, head of investments at Rays Power Infra, said, the distance and location is the biggest hurdle for the company. Besides, setting up a joint venture partnership with a foreign manufacturer takes time. “We are preparing ourselves and would like to participate in the storage based generation auctions in future,” Jairath said.
However, he said the company is hopeful that storage based generation would be in demand with a proportion of renewable increasing to over 25-30% of the grid capacity in coming years. Storage-based capacity would be required to balance the grid during peak hours especially at night. “It would be a great opportunity to participate in future,” Jairath said. There are also concerns over anti-dumping duty on solar PV panels and cells imported from China would slowdown the installation of solar projects. “No one is going to participate in solar bids unless there is clarity on anti dumping duty.
If the duty is imposed it will definitely slow down the development of the solar sector and impact the achievement of 175,000 MW renewable capacity by 2022,” said another vendor on conditions of anonymity. “Unless India is capable of manufacturing enough panels and modules to meet the demand there is no point in imposing the import duty. To meet India’s requirement of solar equipment by 2022, India would need a manufacturing capacity of around 17,000 MW operating at 100% capacity, while at present our capacity is less than 10% of what is required,” the person said. Renew Power, one of the major renewable player in the country, is not interested in small EPC projects and would prefer to participate in self-owned storage based projects in future, said a person familiar with the development.
According to a senior NTPC official around 30 documents were downloaded from the site but how many would actually bid would be known once the bids get opened. The Government is making an effort to change the entire power generation and transmission system in Andaman & Nicobar which is based on costly diesel generation. The cost of diesel based generation is as high as Rs 35 per unit, while in comparison the solar power is most likely to be available at sub Rs 10/unit level. Diesel based generation in Metro cities on the mainland cost anywhere between Rs 15-16 per unit.
The cost of setting up a battery based storage system is 35-40% higher compared with solar PV panel based generation costing around R4cr/MW, but with lower operations and maintenance cost the tariffs are comparatively lower compared with diesel based generation over the project period. Vikram Kailas, chief executive officer of Mytrah Energy, a Hyderabad based renewable power company, said they plan to bid for the project and are looking at options to tie-up with a manufacturing company for supply of batteries. In terms of per mega watt cost for storage based solar plants, he said, “Cost of a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS depends on various factors such as, the technology being used, the functionality required, service level being envisaged etc. So, providing a single number in isolation is difficult since things can vary quite a bit based on the use case,” Kailas said.
Source: financialexpress
