CLP Andhra Wind Farm

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In September 2008, CLP Group entered into an agreement with Maharashtra Government to develop a 113.6MW wind farm located at Andhra Lake,near Pune, in the state of Maharashtra. The project would be executed by CLP Wind Farms (India) Private Limited,the Group’s subsidiary in India. The project consisted of 2 phases - Phase-I of 56MW and Phase-II of 57.6MW. The wind farm will involve the building of 142 gearless wind turbines of 800KW capacity each. The electricity generated from the project would be evacuated by the Maharashtra state grid. The delivery of the power plant had been done by Enercon (India) Limited. The Andhra Lake Wind farm was expected to sell the power to Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL), although the details of PPA could not be confirmed at the time of collection of this information. The APPC (Average Power Purchase Cost) tariff as per MERC tariff order (dated 29 April 2011 for Wind zone 1) was US$ 0.12/Unit (INR 5.37 per unit @ 45INR/USD) for the first 13 years of operation. The total capacity of 113.6 MW was eligible under REC as per the CERC and was also eligible for GBI (Generation Based Incentive) benefits and UNFCC had started the validation project for Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) in Aug/Sep 2011. Financial closure took place in May 2011.The total project cost was US$ 138.2mn.The debt equity ratio for the project was about 65/35. Phase-I cost was US$ 74.7mn. Financing comprised of a 50mn US Dollar Term loan of 13years 9months and sponsor equity of US$ 24.7mn (INR 1112.3mn @ 45INR/USD). The foreign currency loan was arranged by Standard Chartered Bank and was priced at 370bp above LIBOR with a repayment schedule of 51 quarterly instalments. Phase-II cost was US$ 63.5mn (INR 3362mn @45 INR/USD). Financing comprised of US$ 41.3mn (INR 1859.1mn @45INR/USD) Term loan of 13years 9months and sponsor equity of US$ 22.2mn (INR 1001.1 mn @ 45INR/USD). The domestic currency loan was arranged by IDFC Limited and was priced at 10.5% per annum with a repayment schedule of 51 quarterly instalments. Construction for the wind farm started in September 2009. However, due to various delays in obtaining regulatory clearances, CLP decided to split the Project into two phases of 56.0 and 57.2 MW respectively, and commercial operations was expected to start in March 2011 for Phase-I and July 2011 for Phase-II. But Bombay High Court had restrained the developer, Enercon (India) Pvt. Ltd. from cutting a single tree until further orders. The proposed project, coming up in proximity of Bhimashankar Wild Life Sanctuary in the Western Ghats, required about 26600 trees to be cut down, but activists alleged that more than 3 lakh trees had been cut in the forest area.region to construct a 20km long road along the mountains to reach the windmill site.