Inox Wind (IWL), part of the $5-billion INOXGFL Group, is eyeing opportunities in the wind energy sector as the government aims to add 50 GW of capacities by FY28.
The wind energy major, which repaid almost all of the ₹2,800-crore debt, has narrowed its losses in Q2 FY24, and is eyeing opportunities in the operations and maintenance (O&M) segment, both organically and via acquisitions.
“We have successfully come out of the bad times, which lasted for almost 5.5 years. Today, our net interest-bearing debt is around ₹350 crore. Now good times are here. It’s a seller’s market in wind energy,” INOXGFL Group ED, Devansh Jain, told businessline.
He emphasised that IWL is among the few turnkey solutions providers in wind energy in India.
“You can make turbines, but what about execution? No MNC in India today is in wind project execution. Enterprises want end-to-end solutions. In India there are only two domestic players who offer turnkey projects. We carry a 5 GW project site inventory within IWL and have almost 1,800 megawatt (MW) of transmission lines built. We are winning a lot of PSU tenders, because they need a turnkey solution,” he added.
O&M business
IWL is focussing majorly on increasing its (O&M) business, both organically and inorganically.
“Independent Power Producers are now in discussions with us to put their O&M into our platform (IGESL). That is another avenue where a lot of discussions are on. Effectively, companies are looking at giving off their O&M. We, on the other hand, are a core O&M player and this grows our scale. This will aid our growth. We have already said that we will be about 6 GW by FY26, and we are already at 3.2 GW as of March 2023,” said Jain.
IGESL plans to add around 1,000 MW annually over FY24-26, totalling 3,000 MW, through a mix of organic and inorganic growth. As of Q2 FY24, its O&M portfolio stands at around 3.2 gigawatts (GW), IWL said in its investor presentation for Q2 FY24.
“We acquired ifox, which is India’s third-largest player in the unorganised space. We are in discussions with multiple players here. There are around three odd players who have some scale. So, hopefully we will announce some in the near future,” said Jain.
It’s first inorganic acquisition of 51 per cent stake in Ifox Windtechnik India added over 230 megawatt (MW) of O&M business taking the portfolio to around 3.1GW.
In terms of inorganic growth, the O&M business of inactive or stressed players maintaining around 10GW of capacity provides a significant opportunity for IGESL’s inorganic growth. Majority of this fleet is across retail customers.
Wind power
On the Inox Wind side, Jain said the company is expecting a higher number of orders from FY25 onwards.
“From next year onwards, our orders will scale up substantially. The India market for wind power in FY26 is expected at 8-10 GW. Historically, we had a market share of 15-20 per cent with five players controlling 80 per cent of the market till FY17. Today, we are amongst the lowest cost producers,” he added.
Jain said the company’s order book is around 1,300 MW, of these PSUs is roughly 500 MW, retail and C&I 150 MW. The remaining is IPPs. The orders for the 3.3 MW WTG is more than 50 per cent.
In terms of client mix, he said “Broadly speaking, 40 per cent will be PSUs, 40 per cent will be independent power producers (IPPs) and commercial & industrial (C&I) customers and 20 per cent will be retail, captive and small customers.”
“The growth will be substantial. Government needs 17 GW of wind annually. See, of the 500 GW target for 2030, wind energy is 175 GW. Roughly, we are at 45 GW. So, we need 130 GW in seven years,” Jain emphasised.