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India’s utilities seen holding up $360 million for renewables

Some of India’s clean-energy companies say they haven’t received payment for the electricity they generate for as many as 10 months, racking up deficits of $360 million that may put the country’s green power ambitions at risk.Companies that say they’re impacted include ReNew Power Ventures Pvt, back by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley’s Continuum Wind Energy, Orange Renewable Power Private Ltd and CLP India Pvt, part of Hong Kong’s CLP Holdings. Each are working in three states accounting for 40% of India’s capacity where payments are delayed.“We’re noticing substantial slow down in new credit to renewable industry compared to what we were seeing two quarters ago,” Arvind Bansal, co-founder of Continuum, wrote in an e-mail. He said the overdue payments are making lenders risk avert to renewable energy.

The world’s second-most-populous country wants to install 60 gigawatts of wind and 100 gigawatts of solar of solar by 2022.The snafu with payments means “this year will be difficult” for the industry, said Sunil Jain, president of the Wind Independent Power Association. It estimated that power distributors in Maharashtra and Rajasthan owe the companies a combined $360 million.