Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), which is Sri Lanka’s largest electricity provider, has issued a Request for Proposals (RfP) for the construction of a 10 MW PV power plant.

The CEB said the Vavunathivu Solar PV Power Project will be connected to a grid substation near Vavunathivu, a town in Batticaloa District. The project will have to be developed on Build Own & Operate (BOO) basis. The solar facility will deliver power to CEB under a 20-year PPA.

The winning developer will have to procure or lease the required land for the project; secure all environmental clearances, governmental approvals and statutory licenses; and bear the entire cost of interconnection of the solar plant up to the gantry.

The maximum price set for the tender is LKR 18.37 ($0.122)/KWh. Project proposals must be submitted to CEB by August 15, 2017.

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy and the CEB issued issued a call for tenders for the construction of 60 PV plants with a capacity of 1 MW each on Build Own & Operate (BOO) basis in April. Price ceiling for this tender was also LKR 18.37/kWh.

All of these projects, including the Vavunathivu solar plant, will be developed under phase II of the solar program PV ‘Soorya Bala Sangramaya’. The Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy is implementing the ‘Soorya Bala Sangramaya’ program (Battle for Solar Energy) in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA), Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Sri Lanka Electricity Company (Private) Limited (LECO). The country’s government expects to add 200 MW of solar electricity to the national grid by 2020, and 1 GW by 2025 through this program.