Solar EPC RFQ Template for an Industrial Plant (Copy and Issue)

A solar EPC RFQ for an industrial plant should give every bidder the same site data, the same scope and the same price schedule. Copy the template below, fill in the brackets, attach your bills and roof drawing, and issue it to three to five prequalified bidders with a clear submission date.

The template

Copy this structure into your own document. Replace bracketed text.

How to fill each section

Sections 1 and 2: project and site data

Give bidders what they need to price accurately. A bidder who sees twelve months of bills can size the plant; one who sees a single month will guess. Include the main panel location and the distance to the roof. Attach a roof drawing or photographs showing sheet type, condition, parapets, tanks and obstructions. The mistake this prevents: bidders pricing different plants.

Sections 3 and 4: scope

List what is included and what is not. State whether roof strengthening, HT works, the transformer, the metering cubicle and trenching are in or out. The mistake this prevents: the largest price swings between bids, which come from scope and not from margin. See the guide to evaluating solar EPC proposals.

Section 5: technical requirements

State minimum module wattage, whether ALMM modules are required (see ALMM), the inverter class (see string versus central), the wind speed for structure design and the cable standards. The mistake this prevents: a bidder winning with equipment you would have rejected.

Approvals, performance and warranty

Name who files the DISCOM application, who pays fees and who handles inspection and the meter. Ask the bidder to confirm that approval time is part of the schedule. For performance, ask for a generation estimate with assumptions (tilt, losses, degradation, shading) and the method used to measure actual output. For warranty, ask for the module product and performance warranty, the inverter warranty, and the defect liability period in the contract. See defect liability period and AMC and O&M.

• Mistake prevented: a cheap quote that leaves approvals to you.
• Mistake prevented: a generation claim with no stated assumptions.
• Mistake prevented: a warranty that nobody is obliged to honour.

Price schedule and commercial terms

Prepare your own price schedule in a spreadsheet and require bidders to use it. It should list modules, inverters, structure, cables, earthing and protection, monitoring, civil work, approvals, installation and commissioning, and year-one O&M as separate lines, all ex-GST, with GST shown separately. Add optional items, such as extended O&M or battery storage, as separate lines. Keep payment milestones tied to deliverables: advance on order, material delivery, installation, commissioning and a retention until the defect period ends. Retention and advance percentages are negotiated; state yours in the RFQ.

As a sanity check, the published Secured Engineers C&I band is ₹24,000–32,000 per kW excluding GST, which you can see on the solar EPC page. A bid far outside it deserves a question. The quotation comparison calculator keeps bids side by side.

Issue and evaluate

Set a clarification deadline, hold one joint site visit so every bidder sees the same roof, and answer questions in writing to all bidders. After submission, compare line by line, ask each bidder to confirm assumptions, and then negotiate. Do not negotiate by sharing one bidder's price with another; it spoils the process and the relationship. Keep a short log of every question and answer, and ask bidders to confirm in writing that their final price reflects all clarifications.

Finally, put the winning offer, the RFQ and the clarification record into the contract so the scope you tendered is the scope you get. You can also use our RFQ page to send us your requirements directly.

Common RFQ mistakes

• Issuing the RFQ with one month of bills instead of twelve.
• Leaving out the roof condition, so bidders price different structures.
• Not stating whether HT works and the transformer are in scope.
• Asking for a price without a price schedule, so lines cannot be compared.
• Setting a deadline too short for bidders to survey the site.
• Leaving payment terms to be settled after the choice of bidder, when you have lost leverage.

Fix those six and your quotations will be comparable. If you want a cover sheet for the comparison, see the guide to comparing quotations, which applies the same discipline to MEP packages.

How Secured Engineers helps

We will answer an RFQ for industrial solar and we also review RFQs prepared by others. If you send us yours, we will mark missing sections and risky terms. Design is done in-house, and approvals (Fire NOC, CEIG, DISCOM net-metering) are filed in-house. Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire and solar work can sit under one contract. We work from offices in Noida and Ludhiana, with 535+ projects across 18+ states and 89.77% repeat clients.

If you have a bill, a drawing or quotations in hand, send them and we will tell you what is missing. See RFQ page, message us on WhatsApp, call +91 70099 85817, or ask for a free quote.