AP’s solar tenders oversubscribed, TN stumbles

While Tamil Nadu’s solar tender for 1 gigawatt — one of the biggest in the country — received bids for only half the capacity on offer, a similar tender by Andhra Pradesh has been oversubscribed by 34 per cent. The tender is Andhra Pradesh’s push to mitigate a power crisis by adding capacity through the solar route. Both the southern states are facing huge power deficits.

Tamil Nadu, with a power deficit of 4 gw, has drawn up an ambitious plan to add 3 gw through solar by 2015. Likewise, Andhra Pradesh has a deficit of at least 2 gw and released its solar policy last September, but is yet to specify any target. Hyderabad-based climate change consulting firm EfficientCarbon said about 184 firms bid for AP’s solar tender for a total cumulative capacity of 1.40 gw.

This figure is yet to be confirmed by the State’s power distribution utility AP Transmission Corporation. In comparison, only 92 firms bid for 0.5 gw in Tamil Nadu. Bharat Bhushan Agrawal, solar analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance said that this is mainly because of more time for commissioning of projects and the receptive nature of AP’s state utility in addressing developers’ concerns, he said.

AP handled its bidding process better, giving more leeway in terms of pricing and project completion. Also, APTransco’s reputation for clearing payments is much better than that of its counterpart in Tamil Nadu, Tangedco, say experts.

Initially, both Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu launched their 1 gw tenders in December with the winners to be announced in the first week of January 2013. But AP’s tender document missed out some important provisions, which were pointed out by the developers during a pre-bid meeting.