NEG sees Chennai unit as global hub

Company in talks with Reliance to set up a 500 mw windmill

The Danish wind power major NEG Micon A/S has identified the Chennai plant of its wholly owned subsidiary NEG Micon (India) Pvt Ltd as its global exports hub for its wind turbine generators (WTG) of capacities up to 1 mw.

The plan is expected to bring in fresh investments into India by the Danish company.

NEG Micon India has also initiated negotiations with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) for the latter's plan to set up a 500 mw windmill for power generation. Business proposals are also being processed with other majors such as Tatas and AV Birla Group.

"In January 2003 we commissioned a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Chennai with the capacity to manufacture 600 WTGs on a single shift basis per annum. This facility has now acquired international certifications thus making enough reasons for our parent company to identify this plant for sole point of global sourcing. While WTGs of up to 1 mw capacity would be manufactured only here and the entire global market of NEG Micon would be catered from the Chennai plant, we are also ready to pump in further investment for capacity expansion," said Ramesh Kymal, managing director, NEG Micon India, on Friday.

According to Kymal, by next year NEG Micon India would be able to source all the required components for manufacturing WTGs locally in Chennai or in the nearby towns and cities, following which the facility for manufacturing WTGs up to 1 mw in its Denmark plant would be ceased.

"This decision has not only been taken as manufacturing of turbines would be cheaper in India with easy availability of labour but our parent company finalised the plan only after it was assured of even local sourcing of all required components. With the potential of generating employment by this plant, we also expect that a strong ancillary industry for manufacturing components would be developed in Chennai," he said.

Kymal was in Ahmedabad on Friday to mark the occasion of the launch of the largest, tallest and most powerful wind turbine in India, NM 82/1650 for the Gujarat market.

The first NM 82/1650 turbine has been commissioned at Surajbari in Kutch district of Gujarat, known for one of the important wind corridors in India and the turbine has a capacity of 1,650 kw.

Saying that large Indian corporates which till recent times remained sceptical about success of wind power, now have started showing interest in setting up wind farms, he said, "Following a tender released by Reliance for setting up a 500 mw of wind power plant, may be in Maharashtra, we are now negotiating with Reliance where talks are also on with AV Birla Group and the Tatas. If the Reliance deal matures, NEG Micon India would set up a wind power plant for the company and the proposed 500 mw would cost around over Rs 2,000 crore," said Kymal.

The company is also talking to a number of large steel and cement manufacturers in the country which have shown interest to set up wind power farm for their captive consumption.