A legal snag prevented India’s Karnataka state from opening bids from companies including Tata Power Co. (TPWR) that are seeking contracts to build 80 megawatts of solar power plants, an official said.
Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd., a state-run agency, had planned to open the bids on Dec. 2 and announce the winners. That was delayed after it broke a rule requiring government bodies to award contracts through an online procurement system, said KREDL Managing Director N.S. Prasanna Kumar by telephone from Bangalore.
“The program hasn’t been canceled,” he said. “It’s a legal problem that should be solved in a week or 10 days.”
The agency needs to file an application to exempt it from the electronic procurement rule, Kumar said. After that, the bids will be opened, he said.
Companies that have bid for the 50 megawatts of photovoltaic capacity on offer include Tata Power, Welspun Group, Kiran Energy Solar Power and Jindal Aluminium Ltd. Bidders for 30 megawatts of solar-thermal projects were Sunborne Energy LLC, backed by billionaire Vinod Khosla and Atria Power Corp.
