IOCL to relaunch tender to set up a green hydrogen production unit

State-run IOCL will relaunch a tender for setting up a green hydrogen production unit, sources said. It also plans to set up units at all of its refineries as part of a Rs 2.4 trillion green transition plan to achieve net zero carbon emission status by 2046.

The company has cancelled its initial tender for the same after it led to bidders approaching the Delhi High Court. Meanwhile, an existing tender by BPCL to set up a green hydrogen production plant in Kochi may become the point of price discovery for green hydrogen in the country.

The cancelled tender had called for a 10 kilo tonnes per annum capacity unit to be set up on a build, own operate, and transfer basis at the state-owned oil marketing company’s Panipat refinery and petrochemicals complex. The company cancelled the tender in a corrigendum issued on February 21.

“A new tender will be relaunched going forward. The company is looking into it. Setting up a sustainable production base for green hydrogen is a national priority,” a senior person said. However, there is no clear timeline as to when the new tender may come in, he added.

Queries mailed to IOCL on the issue remained unanswered.

In the last tender, prospective bidders had flagged a conflict of interest on IOCL’s part. This was owing to GH4India Pvt Ltd, IOCL’s own joint venture with infrastructure and engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T).

Renewable energy company ReNew is also bidding for the tender. An industry body of green hydrogen producers, the Independent Green Hydrogen Producers Association had also moved the Delhi HC in November.

Price discovery soon

A similar tender to establish a 1,000 kilowatt (Kw) green hydrogen plant and refueling station at the Cochin International Airport in Kerala by BPCL now looks to be the first instance of green hydrogen prices being decided through bidding in India. The last date for submissions of bids is March 1.

The tender calls for a unit designed to generate 100 normal cubic metres per hour (Nm3/h) of green hydrogen via a 500-Kw electrolyser system, with the potential for expansion up to 200 Nm3/h.

The recently closed other big green H2 tender was by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) under the aegis of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. SECI had issued a tender for both hydrogen and electrolyser manufacturing. For its maiden green hydrogen manufacturing tender, SECI called for bids against incentive that the Centre has allocated under the strategic interventions for green hydrogen transition (SIGHT) programme aimed to set up green hydrogen and electrolysers.

The list of successful bidders includes Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC), United Phosphorus Ltd (UPL), Reliance Green Energy, Torrent Power, Welspun Energy, ACME Cleantech, Greenko, JSW, and BPCL. Among these, CESC and UPL have submitted that they do not require any government incentive. The production capacity submitted by these companies is up to 0.4 million tonnes annually. It did not have any cost discovery mechanism. 

The SIGHT programme is one of the four components under the National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM) announced earlier this year. The NGHM is a key component of India’s plan to become energy independent by 2047 and achieve net zero by 2070. The mission aims to develop a total green hydrogen production capacity of at least 5 million metric tonne annually and secure investment of Rs 8 trillion by 2030. The Union Cabinet earlier this year had approved an initial outlay of Rs 19,500 crore for the NGHM, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2021.