Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has barred Reliance Power and its subsidiary Reliance NU BESS from participating in tenders floated by the state-run entity for 3 years.
The renewable energy implementing agency (REIA) in a notice on Wednesday said that Reliance Power submitted a fake bank guarantee in the SECI tender for setting up of 1,000 megawatt (MW)/ 2000 MW hour (MWh) standalone BESS project. The bid was under tariff based competitive bidding (TBCB).
Based on the examination of documents submitted by Maharashtra Energy Generation (the Bidder), now known as Reliance NU BESS under the above RfS, it was discovered that as per the tender requirements, the endorsement of the Bank Guarantee against EMD (issued by a foreign Bank), as submitted by the Bidder, was fake. Since the above discrepancy was discovered subsequent to the e-Reverse Auction, SECI was constrained to annul the tendering process,” SECI said.
As per tender conditions, submission of a fake document, as part of its response to RfS, rendered the Bidder eligible for debarment from future tenders issued by SECI. The bidder, being a subsidiary of Reliance Power, had met the Financial Qualification Requirements using the strength of its parent company, it added.
Upon detailed examination of the matter, ‘it was found logical to conclude that all the commercial and strategic decisions undertaken by the bidder were fundamentally driven by the parent company. Thus, it became imperative to debar the parent company from participating in the future tenders issued by SECI’, the company said.
“In line with the tender conditions, it is hereby intimated that the entities, namely Reliance NU BESS, and Reliance Power (including its subsidiaries) stand debarred from participating in all the future tenders issued by SECI until 3 years from the date of issuance of the debarment notice,” SECI said.
In September, Reliance Power said it has successfully secured a tender from SECI for a battery energy storage system (BESS) project of 500 MW/1000 MWh through e-Reverse Auction (eRA), marking a significant entry into the renewable energy and storage sector.
The competitive bidding saw Reliance Power submitting a tariff bid of ₹3.81999 lakh per MW per month. JSW had emerged as the lowest bidder, offering a tariff of ₹3.81 lakh per MW per month for their 500 MW/ MWh allocation.
This new tariff represented one of the lowest rates for BESS tenders at the 400 KV level in India to date.