Govt receives bids from 23 companies for tranche-II of electrolyser production

Adani Enterprises Ltd, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, Avaada Electrolyser Pvt Ltd, Thermax Ltd and Waree Energies Ltd are among the 23 companies to bid for incentives to manufacture electrolysers under the second tranche of the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) Scheme.

The maximum outlay under the second tranche is ₹2,220 crore. The total bids received were for 2,847 MW against the offered capacity of 1,500 MW.

The SIGHT scheme is a financial measure under the National Green Hydrogen Mission with an outlay of ₹17,490 crore for both domestic manufacturing of electrolysers and production of green hydrogen. The total outlay for the two tranches of electrolyser capacities under the scheme is ₹4,440 crore.

As stated in the draft guidelines of the Solar Energy Corporation of India, the base incentive will start at Rs 4,440/kW and taper down annually to ₹1,480/kW in five years.

The tender follows a bucket-filling approach where the bidder with points based on the lowest specific energy capacity and highest local value addition is awarded financial support against its quoted capacity, followed by the next lowest and so on until the entire tender capacity is exhausted.

While the techno-commercial round for the latest tender is over, the financial bids are likely to be finalised within a month after analyzing them, according to an official who did not wish to be identified.

Adani Enterprises bid for incentives against 101.5 MW capacity each under the any stack technology and indigenously developed stack technology categories. It also bid for 30 MW, the maximum allowed, in the newly introduced category of indigenously developed stack technology for smaller units.

Avaada Electrolyser bid for 300 MW, the maximum allowed, under the any stack technology category.

BHEL also bid under the smaller units’ category for 10 MW, the minimum required capacity.

The first tranche of electrolyser incentives had seen similar interest with the participation of 21 companies.

Ohmium Operations, Reliance Industries’ arm, Greenko’s joint venture with John Cockerill, Jindal India, Advait Infratech, L&T unit, Homihydrogen, and Adani New Industries were among the companies that had emerged as the winners in that tranche.