Inox Wind has signed an EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) agreement with Continuum Power Trading (TN) Private Limited, a part of the Continuum Wind Energy group.

Based on the term sheet signed between the two companies, Inox will supply, erect and commission 250 MW of wind power projects in Gujarat. According to the company’s Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) filing, the projects are divided into two phases of 126 MW and 124 MW.

Srijan Energy Systems, the subsidiary of Continuum Wind Energy, had won the bid to develop 250 MW of projects quoting ₹2.51 (~$0.0386)/kWh in Solar Energy Corporation of India’s (SECI) 2 GW auction of Interstate Transmission System (ISTS)-connected wind power projects under Tranche-IV.

According to the company’s statement, the first phase of 126 MW is scheduled to be commissioned by Q3 of the financial year (FY) 2021 at Dayapar in Bhuj district of Gujarat. The project will be executed on a turnkey project basis, and Inox will provide Continuum Power with end-to-end solutions along with long-term operations and maintenance services.

“Common infrastructure such as 220 kV pooling substation at Dayapar, 220 kV bay at Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) Nirona End, 220 kV transmission line for 72 km is ready, and the project will be executed on a plug and play basis,” the company states.

A senior executive of Inox Wind told Mercom that the term sheet will have the gist of the contract though the “tariff for the project is yet to be ascertained.”

“Due to the shift from earlier regulations, some of our projects, especially those that were almost on the verge of completion or at the commissioning stage, suffered as the cash flow was almost nil, especially in the financial year (FY) 2017-18. Now, we’re slowly recovering from it and have around 850 MW of wind projects in the pipeline,” the executive added.

Further, he said that all the wind projects of Inox Wind are concentrated in Gujarat.  “This is mainly due to the availability of revenue lands, and the capacity utilization factor (CUF) in Gujarat is also good.”

There are only two states in India that have a good CUF—Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

“Although both the states have the advantage of being located along the coastal line, Gujarat is more feasible due to the availability of revenue land while in Tamil Nadu, there are more private lands,” said the official from Inox Wind.

In November 2019, Mercom reported that SECI granted an extension to Inox Wind for the scheduled commissioning of 250 MW of wind power projects in Gujarat. The projects being developed under SECI’s Tranche I program were to be connected to the ISTS network.

Inox Wind has also won the bid to develop 40 MW of wind projects in Gujarat, quoting ₹2.95 (~$0.0421)/kWh. The auction was held by Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) for 1,000 MW of grid-connected wind power projects.

According to Mercom India Research, SECI has auctioned 9.3 GW of wind projects under SECI’s ISTS Tranche I to Tranche VIII program.