Wind Energy

Orient Green Power to up capacity to 1,000 MW by 2013

The renewable power generator Orient Green Power Company Ltd plans to raise its installed capacity from 193 MW to 1,000 MW by 2013 within and outside India at an outlay of Rs.40 billion.

“We currently operate around 193 MW renewable power projects (wind energy 152.6 MW, biomass 40.5 MW) and will be increasing the capacity to 1,000 MW with a mix of wind power, biomass and small hydro projects by 2013,” company vice chairman T. Shivaraman told reporters.

“The total outlay for the expansion is around Rs.40 billion which will be met with a mix of equity and debt,” he said. According to him, the company has filed a draft prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for raising Rs.900 crore.

The Rs.276 crore-equity Orient Green is a subsidiary of Singapore-based Orient Green Power Pte Ltd which in turn is owned by Shriram EPC, Singapore (37.7 percent), Bessemer India Capital OGPL Ltd (37.7 percent) and AEP Green Power Ltd (24.6 percent).

Speaking to IANS, managing director P. Krishnakumar said: “Bessemer India and AEP Green are not exiting during the company’s initial public offer (IPO). As per our agreement they are subject to a lock-in period of one year from the date of IPO.”

He said by the end of fiscal 2011-12 the company will add a fresh capacity of 457 MW (wind farm 384 MW and biomass 73.5 MW).

Queried about the plant load factor (PLF), he said the biomass plants operate at a PLF of around 80 percent while it is around 20 percent for the wind turbines.

Though the company has not made profits last year, Shivaraman said the bottomline will improve this fiscal with more projects going on stream.

He said the mix of wind turbines and biomass and their relative PLFs have been taken into account while working out the economies of the company’s proposed projects involving an investment of Rs.40 billion.

For the nine months ended Dec 31, 2009, Orient Green had posted a revenue of Rs.246.2 million and a loss of Rs.71.2 million. The ownership of Bharat Wind Farm Ltd which owns wind assets of the group was transferred to Orient Green in January this year.

Bharat Wind had posted revenue of Rs.353.4 million and a profit of Rs.21.5 million for the period ended Dec 31, 2009. According to Shivaraman, Orient Green’s books for the year 2009-10 have to be approved by the company’s board.

www.orientgreenpower.com/