Tata Power’s South African wind farm starts commercial operations

Mumbai, July 29 (IANS) Tata Power on Friday announced that Cennergi, its South African joint venture, has started commercial operations there of its 134 MW wind farm project, which is also the Indian firm's first wind project outside India.

"Cennergi (Pty) Ltd, Tata Power's 50:50 joint venture with Exxaro Resources in South Africa, achieved commercial operations for its 134 MW Amakhala Emoyeni wind farm project yesterday (Thursday)," Tata Power said in a statement here.

Cennergi won the bid for two wind projects under the second window of the South African government's Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.

Its second wind project is also expected to go into commercial operations shortly, the statement said.

Cennergi will focus on the investigation of feasibility, development, ownership, operation, maintenance, acquisition and management of electricity generation projects in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, it added.

"Tata Power's successful partnership with Exxaro represented a significant move towards augmenting our global footprint and resulting in Cennergi becoming a preferred bidder for two wind projects," Tata Power chief executive Anil Sardana said in the statement.

"The commissioning of Amakhala wind farm, Tata Power's first wind project outside India, marks the company's continued progress on its objectives of enhancing non-fossil based generation portfolio up to 30-40 per cent of its total generating capacity," he added.