The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has cancelled its 1,000 MW Firm and Dispatchable Renewable Energy (FDRE-VIII) tender that was floated to procure surplus renewable power from existing projects with operational power purchase agreements (PPAs). The cancellation was officially announced by SECI on July 9, nearly six months after the tender was issued in December 2025.
The tender was designed to harness surplus renewable electricity that is often curtailed or remains underutilised due to grid and scheduling constraints. By procuring this excess generation from existing projects, SECI intended to improve renewable energy utilisation without requiring fresh capacity additions while supporting grid reliability and optimising available clean energy resources.
Under the proposed framework, developers owning ISTS-connected renewable energy projects with existing PPAs were eligible to participate, provided their projects were integrated with energy storage systems (ESS). The tender required successful bidders to ensure a minimum assured energy supply during designated solar hours, enabling the delivery of firm and dispatchable renewable power to the Ministry of Power under a 12-year power purchase agreement.
The initiative was viewed as an innovative approach to maximise the utilisation of excess renewable generation from operational projects while reducing renewable energy curtailment. It was also expected to establish a market benchmark for pricing surplus electricity generated by renewable projects that are intentionally oversized to ensure contractual power delivery. Developers with diversified renewable portfolios were anticipated to benefit by optimising generation across multiple assets.
SECI has not publicly disclosed the specific reason for withdrawing the tender. However, the cancellation marks a pause in one of the corporation’s efforts to enhance renewable energy integration through innovative procurement mechanisms. Despite this development, SECI continues to roll out new tenders for renewable energy, battery storage and firm power projects as part of India’s broader clean energy transition and grid modernisation programme.
