Chennai-based Trishe Energy, a wind power developer, which on Monday bagged an order from Indian Energy for the setting up of 1,000-MW of wind farms, is looking for private equity infusion.

The company's Chief Executive Officer, Mr Narasimhan Ramkhumar, told Business Line that a deal was likely in the next couple of months.

Pure-play developer

With the Indian Energy deal, Trishe has orders worth close to 2,000 MW in India. Trishe, Mr Ramkhumar said, was not a power generator (not an IPP), but an EPC contractor. Mr Ramkhumar said that usually EPC contractors are the manufacturers of wind power turbines, but Trishe is a pure-play developer.

Indian Energy, however, is an independent power producer (IPP). In a press release issued on Monday, the company described itself as “one of the first internationally based IPPs to enter the Indian wind market,” which it did in 2007.

It has currently 41.3 MW of operating capacity across two wind farms in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Indian Energy was acquired by Infrastructure India plc in September 2011.

Project Schedule

The “Framework Agreement” that was signed by Indian Energy and Trishe Energy on Monday envisages that approximately 300 MW of projects will be commissioned during 2013, a further 350 MW by 2014 and the remaining 350 MW by 2016.

The projects will be implemented across a number of States in India, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Mr Ramkhumar said that the company would be able to overcome “evacuation issues” in Tamil Nadu by building transmission lines that would plug into the national grid operated by the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. He said that the choice of wind turbines was yet to be made.

Mr Ramkhumar said that Trishe also has operations in Europe and the US. The group is also into lube oil recycling in the US.

>mramesh@thehindu.co.in

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