Tamil Nadu floats tender for solar power projects

According to the tender, the award of the project would be decided on competitive bidding.

The cash strapped Tangedco guarantees payment for the power purchased through an unconditional, revolving and irrevocable letter of credit from a nationalised or scheduled commercial bank.

The tender stipulates that the solar power developer would have to pay consultancy charges to Tangedco towards load flow study at the rate of Rs.200,000 plus service tax for projects up to 15 MW and Rs.500,000 plus service tax for projects more than 15 MW capacity.

The solar plant should be commissioned within 10 months from the date of letter of intent.

The tender comes at a time when the central government has initiated anti-dumping probe into the imports of solar cells from China, the US, Malaysia and Chinese Taipei.

Bidders for the solar power projects will have to factor in the possibility of anti-dumping duty while quoting their tariff rates.

"If at the end of the investigation no dumping duty is levied but the tariff had factored some duty component then the developer will be earning some additional return," an industry watcher told IANS preferring anonymity.