What NTPC and NVVN are, and why they run FDRE tenders
NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation) is India’s largest power generator. NVVN (NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam) is its power-trading arm, the entity that actually signs the auction contracts and re-sells the power to buyers such as DISCOMs (distribution companies). Together they are two of the biggest buyers of renewable energy in the country.
For years the standard tender was for plain solar or wind — cheap, but only available when the sun shines or the wind blows. FDRE (firm and dispatchable renewable energy) tenders fix that. Instead of buying raw solar, NTPC and NVVN ask a developer to bundle solar, wind and a battery energy storage system (BESS) into one package that behaves more like a conventional plant: it must deliver a firm, promised quantity of power during specific hours of the day, especially the evening and morning demand peaks when solar has faded.
What the developer actually has to promise
An FDRE contract is not just “sell us electricity.” It sets a supply obligation the developer must meet or face penalties. Two broad shapes are common:
- Peak-guaranteed model — the plant must supply a high share of its contracted capacity (often around 90 percent) for a defined peak window, typically a few hours in the evening and early morning.
- Load-following / round-the-clock model — the developer is handed an hourly demand profile and must match it across the day, meeting a demand-fulfilment ratio (the share of promised energy actually delivered) of roughly 80 to 90 percent.
A comparable SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India) FDRE tender, for example, required an 80 percent demand-fulfilment ratio in hourly blocks during peak hours from April to October, then a 90 percent monthly average for the rest of the year, with peak windows defined around midnight to 1 AM, 2:30 to 4:30 PM and 9 PM to midnight. NTPC and NVVN tenders use the same building blocks; the exact windows and ratios are set per tender. Meeting them is only possible with a large battery, which is why FDRE has become a major driver of BESS demand in India. If you want the mechanics of the framework itself, see our FDRE tender framework guide, and for the physics of turning intermittent output into firm supply, our page on renewable firming.
Recent NTPC FDRE awards and who won them
NTPC’s headline FDRE round so far has been its 3,000 MW ISTS-connected FDRE Tranche II tender (ISTS meaning inter-state transmission system). At the March 2024 auction, about 1,584 MW was allocated across eight developers at tariffs clustered between Rs 4.64 and Rs 4.72 per kWh:
| Developer | Capacity | Tariff (Rs/kWh) |
|---|---|---|
| ABC Cleantech (Axis Energy) | 300 MW | 4.64 |
| Juniper Green Energy | 200 MW | 4.69 |
| Hero Solar Energy | 120 MW | 4.69 |
| Serentica Renewables | 200 MW | 4.71 |
| Tata Power Renewable Energy | 200 MW | 4.71 |
| ReNew Solar Power | 400 MW | 4.72 |
| BrightNight Power | 110 MW | 4.72 |
| ACME Cleantech Solutions | 54 MW | 4.73 |
NVVN’s storage tenders — the battery half of the story
Alongside bundled FDRE, NVVN has run a wave of standalone BESS tenders, where the developer supplies only the battery service (charging and discharging on instruction) and is paid a capacity charge in rupees per MW per month. These matter because the same batteries underpin firm dispatch. Recent NVVN results include:
- 500 MW / 1,000 MWh in Rajasthan — split across Solar91 Cleantech, Rays Power Experts, Stockwell Solar Services, Oriana Power and Inox Renewable Solutions, discovering a record-low BESS tariff of about Rs 216,000 per MW per month.
- 250 MW / 1,000 MWh (Jhansi) — Sunsure Energy and EnerGrid won 125 MW each, at roughly Rs 6.64 and Rs 6.65 per kWh.
- 250 MW / 500 MWh in Kerala — awarded to Shreyas Sortex Industries at a reported Rs 181,000 per MW per month, sited at a 220 kV substation in Kochi.
The equipment behind these awards is the same solar-plus-wind-plus-BESS class of system Alpha Devraj builds. For the full running list of central and state auctions, see our tender tracker; for how standalone rounds are structured, see our note on SECI standalone storage tenders.
What this means for you
If you are a developer, an FDRE bid lives or dies on battery sizing, round-trip efficiency and how tightly you can guarantee the peak-block obligation — under-size the BESS and penalties eat the tariff; over-size it and your bid is not competitive. If you are a DISCOM, FDRE is how you buy renewable power that actually shows up at the evening peak, at a tariff still well below new thermal. Either way, the battery is the deciding component.
Policy and tender terms shift by notification — demand-fulfilment ratios, peak windows and greenshoe options change from one tranche to the next, so always verify the current RfS (request for selection) before you model returns. To size the BESS behind an FDRE bid or estimate the storage cost for a given supply profile, talk to our team via /contact.
Policy snapshot as of July 2026. Terms change by notification; verify current provisions before financial decisions.