24th September is the day that the government had determined as the deadline to agree on Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with the winners of the 1.06 gigawatt solar tender from last July.

The tender stirred controversy because of its tight deadline for submission, which ended up being extended by one month, its requirements to be qualified (companies had to own the land for the project), as well as for the implementation timeline (180 days). By the end of the tender process, 155 bids were submitted, and Chinese companies won, directly or indirectly, all but one of the 30 opened projects.

According to the Terms of Reference, the government had 150 days to sign the PPAs with the winning firms or else the contract would be awarded to the second-highest bidder.

As reported by Frontier, the results of these negotiations with the tender winners will be scrutinized as even the government was somewhat uncomfortable about the results, not expecting so many Chinese bidders and winners. Another extension of this deadline would surely give place to another controversy about the integrity of the entire tender process.