CLP India Awards Rs 900-cr Order to Gamesa

Gamesa India has won an order for the supply of 65 wind turbine generators of 2 MW capacity each, from CLP India. Neither Gamesa nor CLP India has disclosed the value of the order, but since Gamesa sells its 2 MW machines at around Rs 13 crore, the value of the order is about Rs 900 crore.

CLP India is a leading wind Independent Power Producer and a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based CLP Holdings. The IPP has wind power assets of about 1,100 MW in India.

The machines are to be installed in CLP’s Jath wind farm in Maharashtra. Gamesa will build the wind farm for CLP and also maintain it for ten years, according to a press release from Gamesa.

The order comes at a time when the Indian wind market is very tepid. Last year, India added 1,700 MW of capacity, compared with 3,200 MW in the previous year. This was essentially because of the withdrawal of two key incentives in 2012—‘accelerated depreciation’ and ‘generation-based incentive’ (GBI).

However, the recent Budget promised to bring back the GBI. The promise is yet to be converted into rules, and though the incentive will not come in time for wind investors to catch the current wind season (May-September), the market is seeing some activity. The 130 MW that CLP wants to put up with Gamesa machines, for instance, will come in phases, in 2014.

Last year, Gamesa sold only 99 MW of machines, compared with about 300 MW in the previous years, but the company’s Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Ramesh Kymal, says the low number during last year was due to the commissioning of some projects getting pushed into the current financial year.

CLP to add more than 200 MW every year

In the press release, CLP’s Director, Business Development (Renewables), Mr Mahesh Makhija, has said that the company would add “200MW to 300 MW of wind power capacity every year.”

With the 130 MW of order placed on Gamesa, CLP’s portfolio has crossed 1,100 MW, Makhija has said in the release.