The Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has invited bids for a 22 MW (AC) floating solar grid-connected power project for NTPC. The project will be installed at Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Project (RGCCPP) at Kayamkulam in Kerala.

Through the tender, BHEL is also looking to procure the balance of systems (BoS) for the project. The last date for submission of bids is 5 June 2020 and interested bidders will have to submit an amount of Rs 2.03 million (around USD 26,855) as the earnest money deposit (EMD).

In January 2020, BHEL had floated a tender for the design and supply of a solar floatation platform of 22 MW capacity. In this tender, the vendor had to supply floats and float accessories to fix 95,460 PV modules.

BHEL had also issued a tender for conducting a detailed survey for a proposed 22 MW floating solar project in Kerala. Kerala has installed around 100 MW large-scale solar capacity, with nearly 110 MW under the development pipeline, as of March 2020. Out of this, 102 MW belongs to floating solar projects.

Floating solar power projects are usually favoured in states where land availability for the development of utility-scale solar projects is an issue. Recently, BHEL invited bids for the balance of system works for 100 MW (AC) of grid-connected floating solar power projects for NTPC at its Ramagundam power project in Telangana.

The estimated cost of the project is Rs 175.5 million (around USD 2.31 million). Before this, BHEL also bagged an order for setting up 25 MW floating solar power project located in Simhadri in Andhra Pradesh. The order came from NTPC and was valued at Rs one billion (around USD 14.57 million). The project will be located on a raw water reservoir in NTPC’s Simhadri Thermal Power project.