GE Renewable Energy Wins Gujarat’s 102.6 MW Wind Project from Powerica

USD 15 billion wind energy giant GE Renewable Energy on Thursday said that it has won the 102.6 MW of wind turbine project in Gujarat from Naresh Oberoi-led Powerica Ltd.

As per the deal, GE will supply 38 of its 2.7-132 onshore wind turbines, designed for low wind speed conditions, to be installed at the Rajkot and Khambaliya wind farms in the state of Gujarat.

Further, the Rajkot wind energy project is located about 40 km outside of Rajkot city whereas, the Khambaliya wind project is located 55 km outside of Jamnagar city. The two wind farms will comprise of 19 onshore wind turbines each.

Earlier, Powerica won these projects from Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL) and Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI) in a competitive bidding process. These projects will have an output capacity of 51.3 MW each, which can jointly power the equivalent of 2,85,000 households in India.

Commenting on the project win, Gilan Sabatier, Regional Leader for GE Renewable Energy’s onshore wind business in South Asia and ASEAN, said that “we have been able to offer the highest value proposition to Powerica by working closely together to optimize all aspects of the wind farms. We are looking forward to furthering our partnership as Powerica builds its renewable energy portfolio and thank them for their trust in our technology.”

Moreover, the power generated through these projects will be sold through a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) of 25 years to consumers connected to the state and national grids respectively.

“We are happy to start this new association with GE Renewable Energy and look forward to the commissioning of these two projects on time and with the best generation assets,” said Naresh Oberoi, Chairman of Powerica Ltd.

Meanwhile, the two companies worked closely together to meet the LCOE desired for these wind projects and have created additional value by customizing wind turbine towers.

As per the recently released report by the research and advisory services provider firm JMK Research & Analytics, the solar and wind energy installations in India fell short by 70 percent with 720 MW of solar energy and 188 MW of wind energy projects installed during the January-March quarter of 2020, as compared to the previous quarter.