Indian EPC contractor Mahindra Susten has once again secured the rights to develop a solar power project equipped with a storage system in the Andaman Islands of India.
A diversified coal mining company NLC India Limited announced that Mahindra Susten emerged as the lowest bidder in an auction to set up a 20 megawatt solar PV project equipped with 8 megawatt-hours of storage capacity.
NLC India had previously awarded the contract to Mahindra Susten to develop a 20 megawatt solar PV project equipped with 28 megawatt-hours of storage capacity. That contract was cancelled without NLC India sharing reasons for the decision.
As reported earlier, India has seen several solar+storage tenders cancelled. The main reason being higher cost of development of such projects that leads to higher tariffs. When the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) cancelled auctions for 300 megawatts of capacity, it feared that no utility would like to procure solar power at high rates likely to be discovered in the auctions. India’s largest power generating company, NTPC Limited, was also forced to cancel a 50 megawatt auction planned for Andaman Islands.
However, with some assurances from the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, these companies are planning to hold fresh auctions. The Ministry may offer some incentives or subsidies to the project developers in order to ensure the electricity generated from these projects is affordable.
SECI has launched an expression of interest document to gauge the likely tariff bids for a 160 megawatt solar-wind hybrid storage project in the state of Andhra Pradesh. NTPC Limited has launched tenders to add a storage system to an existing 5 megawatt solar project, set up an 8 megawatt project with 3.2 megawatt-hours of storage capacity, and a 17 megawatt project with 6.8 megawatt-hours of storage capacity. All these projects are or would be located in the Andaman Islands.
