Oriental Green plans Rs 1,100-cr biomass power units

Oriental Green Power, a renewable energy generation company promoted by Chennai-based Shriram EPC, is planning to set up eight biomass-based power plants across the country with an investment of Rs 1,000-Rs 1,100 crore.

Speaking to Business Standard on the sidelines of a conference here on Saturday, T Shivaraman, managing director and chief executive officer of Shriram EPC, said the proposed eight plants — each having a power generation capacity of up to 8 mega watts (MW) — would come up in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Punjab and Rajasthan over the next two years.

The investment for the plants will be funded through debt and equity, he said. Recently, the company had raised about Rs 300 crore equity.

He added that Oriental Green Power is planning more biomass plants in the next three-four years that would take the total generation capacity to 200-220 MW.

Shriram EPC, which is a leading provider of integrated design, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and project management services for renewable energy projects, is also planning to go for an initial public offering (IPO) in the next two years.

Meanwhile, the company has commissioned a biomass plant each in Tamil Nadu's Dindugal and Pudukottai with a total capacity of 15 MW. The company had invested Rs 40 crore in each plant. Three more plants are coming up in the state — one each in Vandavasi, Sattur and Pollachi.

Shriram EPC, a manufacturer of 250 KW wind turbine generators, is also planning to invest another Rs 100 crore at its wind turbine generator manufacturing unit, which was inaugurated recently at Gummidipoondi to the north of Chennai. The company had already invested Rs 170 crore as part of its phase-I investment in the 20-acre facility, which would produce 100-120 units of wind turbines.

Shriram EPC sees the renewable energy sector, particularly wind and biomass power, as a significant area of growth that would contribute more than 60 per cent or Rs 1,500-2,000 crore to its revenues by 2011-12.

The company's current order book size is around Rs 2,200 crore and another Rs 600 crore worth projects will be finalised in the next three-four months, said Shivaraman.