“We have to be careful. MNRE has been in consultation with the commerce ministry to ensure rules are complied with,” said a government official.
SECI’s auction, for the first time, seeks to link offtake of power from solar projects to also setting up manufacturing capacity. Only those bidders will be considered who also commit to starting solar panel and module manufacturing units. Against the 10,000 MW being bid out, SECI wants at least 3,000 MW of fresh manufacturing capacity to be created. Developers can bid for a minimum of 2,000 MW, to which is linked setting up of 600 MW of annual manufacturing capacity.
“Some of the developers have asked the time allowed for setting up manufacturing facility to be extended from the current 36 months to 48 months,” said another government official who did not wish to be quoted. Developers have also requested SECI to relax penalty. These changes, however, are under consideration, and SECI will take the final call, the official said.
The bid submission date has been extended three times already since the first deadline of July 27. It was then postponed to September 27, and then again to October 12. Now it is November 12. Developers have also been lukewarm to the tender since most of them do not have expertise in solar manufacturing.