Title	Solarization through On-Grid (Grid-Tied) – Government Owned Large Cold Storages, Bulk Milk Coolers and Chilling Centres – Baseline Assessment, Site Design, Scheme Unlocking, Demonstration Implementation and Impact Assessment
Location	Karnataka and Maharashtra.   Bidders may apply for both states as a single assignment, or as a consortium with a designated lead entity covering both.
Timeline	6 (six) months.
Expected area of expertise	Dairy cold chain and bulk milk cooling technology; refrigeration and thermal energy storage engineering; grid-connected solar PV and net metering; energy audits and load assessment; cooperative dairy sector (Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation(KMF)/ Maharashtra State Cooperative Milk Federation Limited(MSCMF) and district milk unions); public finance and scheme design in agriculture, animal husbandry and dairy development; baseline–midline–endline research and MEL; GIS mapping; Kannada and Marathi language field capability.
Apply Link	https://forms.gle/5LGxHaxBSv5N2qYF8
Last Date for Apply	5th September, 2026 17.00 hrs

About SELCO Foundation:

SELCO Foundation's mission is to create a platform of solutions that uses sustainable energy as a catalyst to bridge environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation. With holistic development as the primary focus, the organization strives to create equitable societies, where services are accessed by all communities. The interventions of SELCO lead to a sustainable delivery model of essential services like livelihoods, education, and health till the last mile. (Read more about SELCO here: http://www.selcofoundation.org/)

About the Programme

Milk is among the most perishable agricultural commodities produced by small and marginal farmers in India. Raw milk must be brought to 4°C within a few hours of milking; beyond that window, bacterial load rises rapidly, acidity develops, and the milk is either downgraded on quality parameters or rejected outright. For a farmer with two or three animals, a single rejected consignment can wipe out several days of margin. Maintaining this cold chain — at bulk milk coolers, chilling centres and larger cold storages alike — is therefore essential, but it comes at a steady and rising electricity cost, since refrigeration equipment runs near-continuously regardless of collection volume.

Both Karnataka and Maharashtra operate three-tier cooperative dairy structures with roots in the Anand pattern promoted under NDDB's Operation Flood, though the two states' structures differ in institutional maturity. In Karnataka, the Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation (KMF) works through its District Milk Unions and a network of village-level Dairy Cooperative Societies (DCS) numbering in the thousands, procuring in the region of 80 lakh litres per day, and represents Anand Pattern implementation with strong federation-level control. In Maharashtra, the Maharashtra State Cooperative Milk Federation Limited (MSCMF), trade name Mahanand, works through its District and Regional Milk Unions and village-level Primary Milk Producers' Cooperative Societies, with several hundred chilling centres in operation; Maharashtra's cooperative dairy movement is comparatively more fragmented, with several district unions operating with greater autonomy from the state federation. The exact universe, functional status and existing infrastructure profile — including large cold storages, bulk milk coolers and chilling centres — in both states is to be established by this assignment.

The core problem this assignment addresses is energy cost, not chilling capacity: existing bulk milk coolers, chilling centres and large cold storages in both states already run on grid electricity, but tariffs are high and rising, and refrigeration load is a significant and largely fixed component of these facilities' running costs. Three further issues compound this: unreliable three-phase supply forces reliance on diesel gensets at some sites, adding further cost; energy costs per litre chilled or per MT stored are high and increasing year on year; and several facilities carry connected loads that no longer reflect actual, efficiency-optimised running load, meaning both the sizing and the cost of solarisation must be based on measured consumption rather than nameplate rating.

On-grid, grid-tied solarisation of this existing infrastructure offers a direct route to reducing that cost. A grid-tied solar PV system — without new refrigeration equipment — offsets daytime grid draw at each site, reducing the net electricity bill under the prevailing net-metering framework, without disrupting the facility's existing chilling or cold-storage operation. The policy environment in both states supports this: Karnataka's Renewable Energy Policy 2022–27 and the KERC Distributed Solar PV (DSPV) framework, which from July 2025 replaced the earlier SRTPV regulations and now permits rooftop, elevated ground-mounted, façade and virtual/group net-metering configurations; and in Maharashtra, the state renewable energy policy framework with MERC (Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission) net-metering regulations, MSEDCL as nodal agency, and the four Tata Power-operated distribution utilities (TPCODL, TPWODL, TPNODL and TPSODL).

SELCO Foundation works to demonstrate that decentralised renewable energy, combined with energy-efficient equipment and appropriate design, can make essential services and rural livelihoods reliable, affordable and climate-resilient — and to institutionalise those demonstrations through government schemes and public budgets. Through this assignment, the Foundation intends to build the evidence base on the energy and cost profile of existing government-owned bulk milk coolers, chilling centres and large cold storages in Karnataka and Maharashtra, design on-grid solarisation packages sized to offset each facility's measured electricity consumption, demonstrate them at a representative set of sites, and develop a financing and scheme pathway for scale-up by the concerned state departments and federations.

Scope of Work

The scope is organised into multiple components, to be executed in parallel across both states with dedicated state teams. The consultant is expected to propose refinements to this scope in its technical proposal, with justification.

Note on Hardware cost: unless otherwise stated in the contract, the Hardware cost of solar hardware, civil and electrical works at demonstration sites will be procured and financed separately by SELCO Foundation. The consultant's financial proposal should cover advisory, engineering, supervision, research and project-management services.

To Apply

Interested consultants / organisations, with relevant experience (please include samples and/or references of previous similar work as proof of experience) and based out of India are requested to reach out with a detailed proposal giving a brief on the methodology and the process they will undertake for this project, including budgets (with break-ups and explanation), timelines and milestones, and submit the same to the Google form https://forms.gle/5LGxHaxBSv5N2qYF8 on or before 5th September, 2026 17.00 Hrs.

Any further queries please write to procurement@selcofoundation.org with a subject line:

" On-Grid Solarization – Large Cold Storages, Bulk Milk Coolers and Chilling Centres – Karnataka and Maharashtra " (Name of Project)

To download the full ToR, click here: Terms of Reference (TOR) for Consultancy Services

Tags Environment and Sustainability Livelihood