Acme Solar Holdings Ltd (NSE: ACMESOLAR) Q4 2025 Earnings Call dated May. 20, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
Sabri Hazarika — Research Analyst
Nikhil Dhingra — CEO
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay — Founder and Chairman
Rajat Kumar Singh — CFO
Ankit Verma — Head of Corporate Finance
Arun Chopra — Head of Finance and Accounts
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Mohit — Analyst
Apoorva Bahadur — Analyst
Nihal Shah — Analyst
Akash Mehta — Analyst
Dhruv Muchhal — Analyst
Anit Suri — Analyst
Anuj Upadhyay — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Acme Solar Holdings Limited Q4FY25 earnings conference call hosted by Emkay Global Financial Services Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Start then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference has been recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sabri Hazarika. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Sabri Hazarika — Research Analyst
Good morning everyone. On behalf of Emkay Global Financial Services, I welcome you all to the Q4 and FY25 post earnings conference call of Acme Solar Holdings Limited. We have with us the senior management from the company. Today’s session would be discussion on the results followed by given question and answer round. So without any further delay now I’d like to hand over to Mr. Nikhil Dhingra, CEO for the opening comments. Over to you sir.
Nikhil Dhingra — CEO
Thanks a lot. Good morning. Welcome to all of you. I’m Nikhil Dhingra, the CEO and Director on board of the company. I have with me Mr.
Manoj Kumar, the founder and chairman, Mr. Rajat Kumar Singh, our group CFO. He’s a new addition to the team. So a big warm welcome to him. Ankit Verma, Head of Corporate Finance and Arun Chopra who is head of Finance and Accounts on our group controller. It is my pleasure to share with you all the business and financial performance and other key updates for the year gone by. I’ll start with first the highlights of our business and financial performance and then followed by brief of our view on the industry. So financial year 25 has been a landmark year.
A great year for Acme Solar marked by disciplined execution, robust capacity growth and continued emphasis on improving our offtake profile to central and also most importantly the financial prudence. So we have achieved substantial capacity growth this year by adding 1200 megawatts of solar capacity on the top of 1350 odd we had at the start of the year. And that is how we have reached to a sizable number closer to 2700 megawatts. And we have won another 1900 megawatt of bids across FDRE hybrid and solar technologies taking our total project portfolio to approximately 7 GW in terms of the near commissioning projects for 450 megawatts which are completely very ready to produce revenue.
Just to give you a breakup of that 300 megawatt Seeker plant in Rajasthan has successfully commissioned 165 megawatts we got the commissioning of 112 and a half megawatt yesterday evening with remaining capacity of around 135 megawatt under commissioning expected to be commissioned in the next 30 days. Given the favorable average merchant price of around 3.1 per unit which we have realized so far, we intend to initially operate the plant in the merchant market. Subsequently, as the opportunity arises, we will try and move the plant to a ppa. The project will also benefit from an ISDS waiver announcing its attractiveness for the off taker on a run rate basis at the indicated tariff which is currently going on, it is expected to generate a top line of around 230 to 40 crores when fully operational.
In terms of the main project, our 50 megawatt project is under commissioning. We have received almost final approval for around 26.5 megawatts which we are trying to commission in this week and rest of the capacity we are trying to commission again in next 10 odd days. The balance 100 megawatt is at advanced stage of construction. The equipment is already reached the site and we are expecting to get that running in phases with the first phase running in early part of the second quarter and the complete commissioning in the later part of the second quarter. Our operational capacity as of today stands at around 2,700 megawatt and with the commissioning of the balance near commissioning projects which I just spoke about, we will be touching around 3 gigawatts soon.
Now coming to the our under construction project and first of all their BPA LOA status. Our under construction logged in capacity stands at 4.3 gigawatt today out of which around 2.2 gigawatt is already BPA signed and balanced. 2.1 gigawatts are LOA awarded for which BPA signing is expected soon. In terms of the PPA signing what we are seeing is there is bunching up of these PPA signings which we are expecting. It is of course delayed than what we thought initially but we are getting very good traction and we are at a final stage of around 3 PPAs which will aggregate to around 750 megawatts.
We are hopeful that they will be signed very soon. Tariff has been adopted and order has been reserved for over 90% of the projects. I spoke about of 4.3 awards. Around 80% or 3380 megawatts of under construction projects are dedicated to FDRE and hybrid energy solutions. This strategic shift positions us to deliver flexible power and of course in terms of the direction of the market which is oriented towards the FDRE and hybrid solutions. In terms of the connectivity and LAN which are the fundamental building blocks for under construction project, we have connectivity in place for the entire portfolio which we have mentioned before as well as other than that we have surplus connectivity in place both applied and secured of 2,500 megawatts for our future bids.
With respect to land for our PPA signed under construction projects, over 50% land for the solar component and over 60% land for the wind component has been acquired. Additionally, we have applied for over 10,000 acres of government land which is currently at various stages of approval process and will support our under construction project and future pipeline projects. On the financing front for the under construction project we have secured sanctions of around 16,500 crores covering 1700 megawatt of projects in our under construction capacity. We are trying to optimize the interest during construction and therefore we don’t take sanctions for the projects which are not beginning which don’t need the debt part of the financing in the next 23 months.
So we have the in principle approvals but we try and take the sanctions just around when we need disbursement. Additionally, we have successfully received refinancing sanctions of around 7700 crores of debt for our operational projects at an average interest rate of 8.8% per annum. This refinancing would yield a significant benefit reducing the average interest rate on these projects by about 75 basis points and we expect this refinancing benefit to compound further given the interest rate trajectory and the credit rating profile of our assets which is improving. Regarding an update on our credit worthiness in February 2025, CRISIL upgraded our credit rating to A and assigned a positive outlook reflecting their confidence on our Future performance.
Also, 750 megawatt of our operational projects last month received a double A rating. As you would know, the rating of a project is determined by the financial strength of the project as well as the counterparty. So these project just commissioned. This is part of the 1200 megawatt projects we commissioned in January. So as you can see as recent as two three months after operation this achieved a double A minus rating which shows the strong operational performance of this asset as well as the triple A counterparty it is working with. So that’s a good precedence for us as we move to refinance all the other part of the 200 megawatt projects which we commissioned in January.
Additionally, the board declared an interim dividend of 10% for the period ended 31st December 2024 coming to the equipment orders and the CAPEX lock in for our under construction project, let me highlight the strategic progress we have made in securing commitment for the critical equipment orders which is key to ensuring timely execution and cost efficiency. We have logged in prices for the long lead items and appropriate hedges are in place for the imported equipment. For battery, we have logged in prices with suppliers complemented by appropriate currency hedges to mitigate market volatility. This positions us favorably as we have logged in prices at the optimum end of the CAPEX prices.
Additionally, commitments are in place for various associated equipment like PCs, transmission lines, power transformers and wind turbines. Each of these components represents a very important part of our growth pipeline, reinforcing our ability to deliver scalable and high quality renewable energy solutions. We are also optimizing grid infrastructure by adopting new solutions like gas insulated substations. This also helps us to meet our goals of reliability, safety and sustainability as they require less maintenance, safe space and deliver superior performance. Now coming on to operational performance of our portfolio which is operational, we are further pleased to report a significant improvement in our capacity utilization factor which is the cornerstone of our revenues.
The capacity utilization factor for us reached 25.6% for this year and this is definitely slated to improve as we are currently improved the proportion of our portfolio which is running in Rajasthan which is the highest GHI zone in the country. The performance translated a substantial generation of around 401 crore units, a 55% increase compared to the previous year. This growth was primarily driven by our successful 1200 megawatt capacity expansion which as I just mentioned has been increased to around 1365 by commissioning of the 165 megawatt which we just announced. Our plants continue to demonstrate high reliability, maintaining an average plant availability factor of 99.5% which is industry leading.
Furthermore, our strategic focus on Rajasthan, one of the highest solar radiation zones in India, has resulted in a CUF of 29.4% for the plants in the area and this is significant because it’s a very substantial part of our portfolio which is delivering this kind of CUF and that will help us improve in next year on the CUF because this year we had a partial run for our 200 megawatt plants. Next year we will of course have the full run for our 200 megawatt plants. This new plant of 300 megawatt which is just getting commissioned also is part of the Rajasthan portfolio.
On our financial performance, I’d like to highlight key figures both for the quarter as well as for the full year financial year 25. One key point to note here is that we monetize 369 megawatt of our operational assets in quarter four FY24. Thus for like to like periodic comparison we should compare the performance on the adjusted basis. So on a like to like basis for the quarter we reported total revenue of around 539 crores which is up 73% and EBITDA of around 488 crores up 119% on a year. On year basis the PAD and cash pat for the quarter stood at INR 122 crores and rupees 238 crore respectively.
Now on a full year basis we generated total revenue of 1,575 crores which is up 32% over the last year and EBITDA stands at around 1400 crores which is up 43% with a margin of over 89%. PAT and Cash PAT stood at 251 crores and 559 crore up 290% and 155% respectively. Throughout the year we definitely prioritize strengthening our balance sheet and optimizing capital management. As of FY25 our net operational debt to EBITDA stands at 4.4 which is well within our guided range of 5.5. Our net debt to net worth ratio has improved to 1.7x reflecting continued progress in our financial discipline.
During the year we expanded our asset base by around 4,100 crores bringing the total gross block to around 15,500 crores. We continue to maintain a robust liquidity position with cash and bank balances of around 2,900 crores as of FY25. Now just briefly touching upon the industry scenario. So on the industry side of course the power demand growth was in FY25 was lower than expectation at around 4%. It was muted because of the higher base and also due to the higher than expected rainfall and favorable monsoon. The peak demand was 250 gigawatt in May last year and is expected to peak over 270 gigawatt this summer.
And of course we did very well on the renewable capacity addition as a nation. We added around 30 gigawatt during the year bringing the total RE capacity to over 220 gigawatts. Solar of course has been the leader with adding 23.8 gigawatts of new installations taking the total solar capacity to around more than 100 gigawatts. And of course the wind also reached a milestone of around 50 gigawatts so new tenders were rolled out for over four 50 gigawatts in FY25 largely comprising of hybrid and FDR tenders incorporating battery storage. In terms of the key policy shifts, the government really up the up the policy making in terms of getting these PPA signed early.
So now we have policies in place which require the tariff adoption to happen within a month of the bid. And we also have the binding timeline for signing a PPA for the new tenders. We are also seeing that the battery has become an integral part of all our projects which will come up in future. Of course, as we move forward we are seeing the impact of ACLM which will which is basically not allowing us to import cells From China Post FY26 Post June 26 to be correct and that will that is already reflected in tariffs.
There is not a large shift in tariffs but of course that will help improve the attractiveness of the current tariffs for us. We are observing a clear shift in the energy dynamics towards reliably meeting the rising base load and peak power demand using renewable energy. A transition which will be facilitated by adoption of low cost energy storage solution to integrate the intermittent renewable power. Now I’ll just. I would now request to open the floor for questions which our team will be happy to answer. Thanks a lot.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star N1 on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you may press STAR and two Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Mohit from ICICI Securities. Please proceed.
Mohit
Good morning sir and thanks for the opportunity. My first question is can you please refer to the timeline for these on the large under construction project especially 380 megawatt FTRE and 680 megawatts, right? Sure, sure Moin, Thanks.
Nikhil Dhingra
Sure, sure Mohit, Thanks. Thanks for participating. So in terms of timelines for for this project the PPA got signed for 190 megawatts of the three 380 megawatts in in June of last year. So the scheduled COD of that project is June of next year two years time you get to execute. And similarly for the for the 580 meg 320 and and two that’s around 580 megawatts of SGBN. That’s also the timeline is May 2026 as per the PPA. So we are, we of course have financing for both these assets. We do have the land for these assets which were PPA is signed.
So we are, we are in middle of like the equipments we mentioned about ordering of gis, ordering of transmission line, ordering of transformers, ordering of batteries. So all these are geared up for these projects. So that’s, that’s where we are. We have started construction and of course we have started the transmission line for these projects. So, so we are geared up to execute these projects in the, in the scheduled timeline of May and June next year.
Mohit
Second question. Any color on the financial closure of all these three projects? 323 megawatts.
Nikhil Dhingra
Yeah. So all of them are financially closed.
All of them are financially closed. And they closed, I think the 16,500 crores we mentioned in this quarter and last quarter they were part of that. So these were financially closed even before the last quarter ended. So they are all financially closed.
Mohit
All three. Right sir
Nikhil Dhingra
, all 3. The 380megawatts of course includes the PPA which has not been signed also because the PPI signed only for 190. But the 380 is also financially closed. On page number 26 of the earnings presentation we have highlighted which all financial closure has happened for all the projects.
Mohit
Any expectation on the PPS for the, for the balance capacity for the, for where you signed the ppa? Partly.
Nikhil Dhingra
Yes. Yes. Yes. So yeah. So we are in a very advanced stage with the, with multiple states on these. There are two PPAs which are partially signed. One is this 190 megawatt and another is 200 megawatts of solar plus battery which is at a tariff of around 3.42. So these two. We are at a very advanced stage of discussions with the states which have already taken partial and also the new states and we are getting good traction on them. We are hopeful that these will be signed in let’s say a month or so. Of course the, the primary discussions are being held by the REIS and they brief us that it’s, it’s, it’s and, and the tariff has been adopted.
The good thing is both these tariffs have been adopted by CERC long time back now 3, 3, 4 months have passed. So it’s, it’s a very, and, and also by the state regulators wherever PP has been signed. So that gives good comfort to the, to the customers who have bought this power.
Mohit
Good to hear sir. Thank you and best of. Thank you.
Nikhil Dhingra
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Before I take the next question I would like to Remind participants that you may press STAR in one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Apoorva Bahadur from IIFL Capital. Please proceed.
Apoorva Bahadur
Hi Nikhil, thank you for the opportunity. You highlighted that you have locked in the CAPEX for the batteries. Can you share that number with us? What’s the estimated or expected cost over there and who would be the suppliers? I mean based on the tiering.
Nikhil Dhingra
Sure, sure. Apurva, thanks a lot for joining the call. So in terms of the capex I will not be able to divulge specific numbers but what I can tell you is that it is definite much below the budget we had in terms of the initial bid budget when we see how do we plan for the projects is we take the current prevailing prices at the time of the bid. So they are much below that. And of course in terms of the tearing they are all tier one suppliers and they are all from China of course because as you know China is the primary supplier for the lithium iron phosphate batteries which we are procuring.
So the good thing is that there are enough and many suppliers which allow you to procure at scale and also procure within the timelines which you need. So the good thing about batteries is that, and good thing about our portfolio is that we have a large proportion of that in the central connected projects. Right? So out of our operational capacity more than 60, 70% is now connected to the central grid and that allows us to maybe if we are able to execute faster, play the merchant market on the battery side. And that is another reason other than hedging the capex we have also tried and preponed the battery side which, which of course can leverage the already operational substations we have with all the associated infrastructure.
So in terms of the capex all I can tell you is that it’s a very competitive price and that is why you are seeing the impact of that in the, in the, in the tariffs. So that’s a good thing. Of course there are counterbalances, the CAPEX falls and various other things keep moving. So like ALCM has also come in. So there is a counterbalancing all the time in terms of tariffs but all I can tell you is they are much below the bid budget we had and we will be able to share as we capitalize the asset because as you would appreciate these are all competitive bid so it will not be wise for us to give the specific numbers.
Apoorva Bahadur
Sure. Correct me if my understanding is wrong but I believe that the projects that we have already bid for are not under the ambit of alcm. Right.
Nikhil Dhingra
None of the projects which we have bid for are under the ambit of alcm.
Apoorva Bahadur
Okay.
Nikhil Dhingra
But how it impacts us is that the new bids come under the ambit of alcm. So for the customers, new bids and old bids are the same. Right. They care about the prices. It’s a commodity. Right. My power is not different from the earlier power. Right. So in terms of the benchmarking, it gives us some benefit in terms of having the old PPS because the LCM will have a up move on the tariff.
Apoorva Bahadur
Okay. And we’ll be importing battery cells or packs for the entire base system.
Nikhil Dhingra
Entire base system. Entire system.
Apoorva Bahadur
Okay. And when would be the soonest that we can see first units being commissioned over here. Any timeline on that?
Nikhil Dhingra
Yeah. So we are targeting Q3. We are targeting Q3. Q2. Late Q2 to Q3 is our target stress target. We are trying to do a pilot also which we are trying to finish in Q2. And the large scale battery we are trying to do in Q3.
Apoorva Bahadur
Okay. And last question on this battery side is that these suppliers, what sort of warranties do they give?
Nikhil Dhingra
So in terms of the. Yeah, please.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay
They are giving a 20 years of warranty and with the degradation cycle leaving up to 70%.
Apoorva Bahadur
So the way to think about this is that the battery will last at least 70% of its rated capacity by the end of 20th year.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay
Correct. It is similar like module. You are right.
Apoorva Bahadur
Okay. And this is 20 years based on one cycle per day.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay
One cycle per day, Correct.
Apoorva Bahadur
Okay, understood. Thank you so much. I’ll get back in the queue for more questions.
Nikhil Dhingra
Right, thank you.
operator
Thank you. Before I take the next question, I would like to remind participants that you may press STAR in one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Nihal Shah from Prudent Corporate Advisory. Please proceed.
Nihal Shah
Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on the great set of numbers. So my question was regarding capacity utilization factor. So this year our CUF is pretty high. And was it because of the new 1200 megawatt capacity that came in? What was the capacity utilization factor for that facility in the last quarter and for the old facilities in the last quarter, if we can bifurcate.
Nikhil Dhingra
Sure, sure, sure. So in terms of the capacity utilization factor for this new project which we have commissioned, we did more than 30% CUF. 32% to be exact, in the last quarter. So this is a very high CUF. Of course you are right. That operationalization of this 1,200 megawatt projects in Rajasthan and that too in the highest sunlight zone of Rajasthan, which is Fatehgarh, which has helped us get the COF up to 25.4%. And as we mentioned Rajasthan as a state, if you look at our portfolio there, which is very large, that has done around 29.4% CoF on an annualized basis.
So as we move forward and we capture the full year impact of this project, next year the CUF is bound to go up.
Nihal Shah
Okay, and how much do we expect the CUF for the FDRE projects to be? And by when can we estimate our sorry FDRE projects to commission? In FY26 and FY27 if we can give a number.
Nikhil Dhingra
Right. So in terms of the cuf, there is, there is of course it depends on the configuration and of course it varies from bit to bit. But on a, let’s say there is a minimum CUF you need to give in each bid of around 40% which is on a FDRE and hybrid it is typically around 30% and in some FDRes it is 50% minimum CUF. So given our configuration, we are marginally above the minimum COF in all these FDRES. So you can say in a 40% bid it will be around 43 to 45%. In a 50% bid will be around 50 to 55%.
And of course on a hybrid we’ll be around more than 30%, maybe around 35, 40%. So that’s the CUF, of course. So that will give a higher revenue per megawatt of contracted capacity. Of course it will have a higher capex per megawatt of contracted capacity as well. But of course the return ratios are favorable. Quite favorable.
Nihal Shah
And so the other question is when can we estimate pencil in some of the capacities of FDRE?
Nikhil Dhingra
Yes, yes, yes.
Nihal Shah
By 2027.
Nikhil Dhingra
Yes. So as we mentioned that our, our base case is May, June, like when Mohit asked. So May and June is the first FDRE schedule date. But what we’ll try, wherever the substation is ready on a, on a short term open access basis, we’ll try and commission it sooner by building the plant and the transmission line and every other thing. The issue with operating on STO is that you don’t get a binding commitment to evacuate. So, so that’s a slightly lower realization of your capacity. But given that we are all geared up to execute faster, we will try and we’ll try and prep on this.
But on the base case it is May and June of 26.
Nihal Shah
Okay. And when we talk about the Cost of debt. So we’ve seen a reduction in 7,700 crore debt that we have above 75 basis point. So moving ahead, how much can we see a overall cost of debt reduction in the coming couple of years?
Nikhil Dhingra
Right. So in terms of the, we have only refinanced right now one of the project of ISDS which is 300 megawatt out of the 200 megawatt which we recently commissioned and that got us a rating of double A minus. So as you know, interest rates are dependent on the credit rating. So we are expecting that all of this 1200 megawatt should get a good rating in the, in the similar band which the earlier project has got. So right now if we borrow we are typically getting 8.5 to 8.6% at that credit rating. Of course it is expected to improve as the rates fall which, which, which is again a macroeconomic thing we are projecting it.
But of course it is likely to happen that in terms of the, if the rates fall we are likely to get some benefit of the new refinancing. Of course what we have refinanced already is locked in for a year. So we will not get a benefit for at least any year where we have already taken a disbursement but where the sanctions are in place and we are dependent on a base rate we may get benefit depending on when we take disbursement. So it is expected to reduce and the deduction could be dependent on, could be dependent on the base rates which are expected to reduce.
And of course the improvement in credit rating allows us to get the best in class rate for an operational asset which is around 8.5% today for double a asset. Of course we are taking long term financings. We are not taking a short term, five year, seven year financing. These are all long term financings we have taken for 20 years which allows us to get free cash flow to equity which we need to do capex and which allows us to improve the return ratios of the project also.
Nihal Shah
Okay, thank you. Thank you very much.
Nikhil Dhingra
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Akash Mehta from Canada HSBC Life. Please proceed.
Akash Mehta
Yeah, hi, yeah, just can you help with the capacity additions that we are kind of expecting in fiscal 26 and 27? I mean we have given a number of 7 gigawatt by 2728. But if you can just help us with the UI’s number and second would be, I mean any ballpark EBITDA that we could kind of be looking at in terms of forecast.
Nikhil Dhingra
Right? Right. So on a FY26 basis we are very close to achieving our targets of on a, on a, as per PPA timelines, 450 megawatt is what we were, we are, we are adding in this year and that’s the AC basis. On a DC basis it could be you can say 600 megawatt peak or around that number. In terms of the FY27, bulk of our capacity is coming up in FY27 which is as per the signed BPAs which we just mentioned, around 1.2-gigawatts. Right. So 2.2-gigawatt of capacity is coming up in FY27 because all of the PPA has been signed.
So Ankit, correct me if I’m wrong, 2.2 gigawatt is what should come up in 1.1.89 gigawatt in FY27. And, and, and then of course we are building the rest of the plants also. But I’ll be able to give you the timeline once the PPA gets signed. But that is something which we are expecting in FY beyond FYI 27th where the PPAs have not been signed but we have begun construction. So our, our execution will not get delayed. But of course we will not do capex until the PPA gets signed. So that is the capacity which will shift beyond FY27.
But we have already blocked connectivities which allows us to Commission before FY27 but we will get, let’s say a grace period to, to commission post FY27 also because you get two years to commission post PPS signing. So rest of the capacity you can put beyond FY27 which ankit you can quantify what’s that number? Roughly around 2 gigawatt. Roughly around 2 gigawatts.
Akash Mehta
Okay, I think that’s helpful and I mean in terms of incremental bidding. So since there are a lot of things in pipeline you’ll be looking for more projects or probably you’ll be looking to enter, maybe you’ll take a break maybe over six months a year and then looking at more projects for your 10 gigawatt target for fiscal 13.
Nikhil Dhingra
Yes, yes. So see you’re right in terms of the, in terms of the breathing space and time we’ve already taken that we have not won in last as you would have seen in the last six months we have not won much capacity. Of course the bids have been also slow. But in, in this industry, what you have to also realize is that it’s a it’s a question of optimiz tariffs and optimizing the construction timelines. So what we are trying to do rather than being aggressive on the bids is being aggressive on the execution ahead of time.
Like we have already bid built a merchant plant in seeker. So that plant is a very big strategic advantage for us because we can plug into any, any of these PPAs which we get or which we have not got still and commission it immediately. And considering the merchant market today we have a very healthy tariff going on for the next couple of years given the peak deficit. So what we are trying to get is some of the connectivities which we have. We will try and build those connectivities and we are able to get financing also for the merchant plants.
So we will keep on building these plants once we get a financing. We will not build a plant where we don’t get a financing on the debt side because we want to cover our risks and of course we will put them into a PPA when we get a good bid. And of course in terms of the. We will always try to be financially prudent in terms of the scheduling our capex as per the available resources because we don’t intend to raise any further equity for funding the CapEx we have. So we will always try and bid conservatively in terms of the, the new project profile.
They are all coming with storage and so the capex per bid has reduced because they have less of, you can say less of wind capacity and more of solar and battery. So capex has reduced but still we will try and basically stagger our PPAs and stagger our commissioning timeline such that we reach 10 gigawatts but we reach in a way which is yearly wise more balanced and concentrated in a particular year.
Akash Mehta
Okay, I think that’s helpful. So thanks a lot and all the best.
Nikhil Dhingra
Thank you Akash.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhruv Muchhal from HDFC AMC. Please proceed.
Dhruv Muchhal
Yes sir. Thank you so much. The gross block number that we have reported in the PPT about 14,100 crores. Does this include the. For the, for the newly commissioned Secchi projects, does it 1200 megawatt, does it include the DT portion also on the modules?
Arun Chopra
Yes, it includes that.
Dhruv Muchhal
Okay, so ideally when we look at the gross because this is not what you will depreciate. I believe this is. I mean so your actual cash spend will be much lower. Is that right? Understand?
Nikhil Dhingra
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Dhruv Muchhal
If you can share what that number is of the duty portion.
Nikhil Dhingra
So it’s around four and a half thousand crores. Correct me if I’m wrong, Arun. Right.
Arun Chopra
So as far as the duty number is close to around 2100.
Nikhil Dhingra
No, no, the, the cash portion is asking that is around four and a half thousand crores. Right?
Arun Chopra
Yeah.
Dhruv Muchhal
So on the duty portion within the gross block is about 2100 crores.
Arun Chopra
Yes, yes.
Nikhil Dhingra
That is for six projects. That is not for the 1200 megawatt. So for the 1200 megawatt it will be around 1400 crores.
Dhruv Muchhal
If I just adjust 1400. So yeah, perfect. Makes sense. So the second question is, as you mentioned, the ALCM probably leads to an increase in tariffs. So the industry understanding is the tariffs for pure Venla solar can go to about 3 rupee, 3.1 rupee, approximate. I don’t know if people get more aggressive but when I look at your, you know, pipeline projects, for example, you have an Omega project if I’m not wrong, which is Omega urja Solar of 300 megawatt, which I’m not wrong. The tariff is about 2.5 rupee. So I’m just curious why this project does not get signed.
Because the new tariffs will come at say vanilla solar will come at 3 rupee. And you have a project which is selling at 2.5. And probably if I’m not wrong, if the PPA signed before the June period, you also get transmission waiver while the new projects with ALCM will also not have transmission waiver. So I’m just curious to understand as an example this project, why is it not getting signed?
Nikhil Dhingra
Right, right. Right. So I think the one thing is that the, on the ISTs waiver front, it’s the commissioning date and it’s not the PPA signing date. So, so there is no advantage per se. But of course you’re very right that 2.52 is a very attractive tariff and we are expecting that PPA to get signed very soon. So it’s, it’s something which you’re right that the tariffs will be higher going forward. And of course what the other thing is happening is there are no pure solar beds coming. They are now going to come up with some component of battery.
Right. So, so these are some of the few remaining solar, pure solar tenders. And given the, the overall profile of having some bit of peak power. So these are, you can say the, the, the residual solar which is going to get picked up very soon. So you’re right that it is an interactive parent. But like you rightly said, also the aggression also is there sometimes the tariff should be three, but may not be three. Right. So you will see that the tariff will be somewhere between not the very this thing because the interest rates and of course the people have integrated facilities.
So. So you will see that it will be 2.7, 2.8. Of course it could be. It may not capture the full impact because the sell prices are also benign. And of course the raw material prices are also benign currently because the Chinese raw materials are also not getting good customers abroad. So it may not go that high. But still 2.52 is an attractive tariff and should get signed.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay
So Dhruva, actually let me explain a little bit. Explain. Right now most of the utilities this manoj here. So most of the utilities they are looking evening and morning power, right? So there they are not that much attractive to just buy solar. Right. So they are all preferring solar with battery, solar, fdre those things. Right. So this is a very new phenomena. You must have seen the government direction also that solar should be installed with the battery. So there are actually few PPAs or few tenders which will. Which are still open in this whole pure solar category and they will get signed price wise.
It is very attractive. It should get signed. But right now most of the utilities are preferring evening and morning power. So they are preferring FDRE solar plus batteries, those type of powers.
Dhruv Muchhal
Yeah, I’m just wondering, I mean these, all these tenders of pure solar are cheaper than the vanilla than the new ALC and solar tenders. So why not align a battery along with it? I’m not sure. Of course that’s a regulatory.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay
No, you can’t do. Actually you cannot do you. You cannot do anything in the bidded tender. Yeah, that is a challenge if you ask me.
Dhruv Muchhal
You’ll have to think about it. But yeah, I think that is the difficulty.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay
Yeah, yeah. They have to do separate bid from battery because it are all section 63 bedding. You cannot change in the configuration.
Nikhil Dhingra
But the good thing is that you get the battery connectivity along with it. When you build a solar plant at a particular CTU substation it allows you up you to get the night connectivity along with it. So which is a big plus because let’s say if we build this plant, we will get the battery connectivity and use it in the future builds also.
Dhruv Muchhal
And just the next question was on the point of you know, preponding some of your FDRE projects, I think the battery portion. So I’m just trying to understand how does it help? Can you start supplying to the discom if you prepone it or you are looking at optimizing it on the merchant basis because probably you commission the battery portion of the project early and optimize by selling it on the grid because you have that leave available for the few months. Is that what you’re planning?
Nikhil Dhingra
Right. Right. So see there are, there are facilities available in the PPA where you could procure the battery power from a third party. So which is basically you can have it in a, on a merchant basis till the time you plug it into a ppa. So what you can do till the time you plug into a ppa, you can install the batteries on an already operational, SO substation and use the infrastructure there. And when the ppa, the rest of the component is ready, you can start supplying to that ppa.
Dhruv Muchhal
Okay, so until the PPA official, I mean is commissioned, till that time you will be selling that power in merchant, on merchant basis.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay
Yes, yes, yes, that’s, that’s one of the options. Yeah.
Dhruv Muchhal
And I mean speaking to some, it seems that I’m not very clear about, about funding for battery projects because. So is the funding for battery projects now available or still there is some hurdle in terms of warranties and insurance and all those claims from the lenders.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay
See the 16,000 crores of financing we have obtained, right. Almost leaving apart one or two projects, all of them have battery components. So that’s, that’s something which has already happened. You know, Renew recently operationalized the battery plant. Right. They have got international lenders, Indian lenders. So that hurdle has been for a large portion of projects all the leading lenders are comfortable with battery and that has been aided by the government push. Of course there is a PLI scheme, There is a lot of state governments are also buying large amount of batteries. So the understanding about the battery has really improved in the last year or so.
And everybody realizes that this is a good capex and it should be supported. So we are seeing good traction even for the merchant battery.
Dhruv Muchhal
Okay, so batteries, I mean for lenders, batteries is not a hurdle in terms of approving and all those. That’s. That’s all.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay
Yes. And that is primarily being driven by the, the adoption of this technology by the, by the largest player, which is the government. Right. Because state governments are very much understanding how it benefits them because they are also seeing their peak deficit. They are also seeing how it adds value. So. And if everybody is doing capex, government is doing capex. So that also supports this kind of adoption.
Dhruv Muchhal
Thank you and all the best. That’s very helpful. Thanks.
Nikhil Dhingra
Thanks a lot, Dhruv.
operator
Thank you. Before I take the next question, I would like to remind participants that you may press Star in one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Anit Suri from Emkay Global. Please press.
Anit Suri
Yeah, Hello. Hi sir. So just a quick question on the cuf. So just wanted to check. You mentioned that the Rajasthan capacity has a CO of 29.4% as opposed to the overall COF of 25.6%. Is there any specific reason why this has a 4% higher CUF than the rest of the capacity? Maybe like a different cell technology or something.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay
Right, so see it’s a. The primary reason is there are two fold. One is regulatory that in our power past projects the tariff used to be higher but because of that the CUF was capped at 19%, in some cases 18%. So because the tariff was high, nobody wanted to buy a larger quantum of power so they restricted the cuf. So all of our old projects have some kind of limitation around that. Post 2017, what we have signed from the Central REIs, this gap was removed. Suppose 2017 projects don’t have this gap. The second reason which is more to do with the sunlight is basically that Rajasthan gets, you can say around 5 to 10% higher radiation than rest of the states in terms of leaving apart some parts of Gujarat which is at par with Rajasthan, but it gets a higher radiation than other states.
So because of the higher proportion of the power being located in Rajasthan, we also get advantage of that and everybody gets advantage of that whoever is located in that region. The third reason which is again the technical configuration of plants which had been consistent, it’s not a new thing for us. We have been doing high SUF because in terms of the sharing the AC infrastructure with the larger DC infrastructure by putting more modules around 1.5 times overloading on each inverter. So, so that is again a technical point which is, which helps us to generate these kind of CWF because given the the cost benefit it makes sense to install more modules over the same AC infrastructure.
So these are the three reasons the Rajasthan has a higher sort of CUF then let’s say some of the older ppa. So primary reason is regulatory and rest. Two reasons are you can see contributing also.
Nikhil Dhingra
And just to add, just to add here one more point, this 25.6% that you are seeing for the full year, the SEGI ists which is 200 megawatt only ran for three months in the last year. So the full stabilization, you will see the numbers reflecting in the current year which in which for which it will ran for full year this year. So apparently this will increase from 25.6% which was. yeah.
Anit Suri
Understood. Yeah, that makes sense. The second question I have is in terms of funding, so regarding the funding you mentioned that 16,000 crores of the funding has been secured for the under construction capacity. So is that going to be fully debt funded or basically just wanted to Understand if the 16,500 crore is the entire number or do we. Or are we funding something from internal accruals as well?
Nikhil Dhingra
Right. So the 16,500 crores we mentioned is. Is the debt financings we have right. For the PPA signed projects which is around 1800 megawatt of stem which we have financing for. So equity already we mentioned we have currently cash accruals of around 2900 crores which are in place and we have unutilized basically equity which is. Which is. Which will get released of around 1500 crore more which is. Which we can take in terms of the unutilized credit lines which we have available for our equity portion. So that will take the. Which is basically aided by the free cash flow equity of the operational projects by the EPC margins and of course by these credit lines which are available. So, so that will contribute to the equity portion. This 16,500 crore is the. Is the debt portion long term project finance which is available to us. And one for let’s say 25, 75 or 28s are debt equity.
So let’s say 1/4 of this number is the equity we need. So we do have that already. So you can say the 16,000 crores of debt will be supplemented by around 4,000 crores of equity and that will help us do 20,000 crores of capex.
Anit Suri
Understood. And just the last one, if I can ask, maybe this has already been answered but regarding the best commissioning, is there any specific timeline that you provide?
Nikhil Dhingra
Right. Like we said we are, we are doing it one pilot project which is. Will be executed in our operational sites in 200 megawatts so that we are targeting for Q2, the later part of Q2 that’s a pilot project but large scale project we are targeting to do in Q3. So we have already done the tie ups like we mentioned. So depending on the, all the, all the, all the components and all the approvals that’s something we are trying to do because we are also very geared up to utilize the gap between the peak power rates and the base power.
So we think it makes imminent sense to try and commission them early. So we are all Geared up and we do have the commission projects which are required, the connectivity is in place and the operational projects in place which allow you to do that.
Anit Suri
Right, got it, got it. That’s clear enough. Thanks for taking the questions and all. The best, Thanks a lot.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Anuj Upadhyay from Investec. Please proceed.
Anuj Upadhyay
Hi, thanks for the opportunity, sir. Much of the questions have been answered. Just want certain clarity on the wind project. So off late we have been seeing that wind has been significantly underperforming. So two of the last five years probably the performance have been quite weak and this probably could have an impact on the committed output across our FDRE and hybrid tender. So just want to get your thoughts on it. How as a developer are we trying to deal with this kind of a risk asset?
Nikhil Dhingra
Right, so, so you’re very right in terms of the, the past performance of wind and of course as a, as a technology it’s very useful. But yeah, in terms of the predictability is much lower than solar. So we of course are looking at it the same way you are looking at. So when we persisted with solar for more than 10 years, 12 years of our operations, we were going by the same philosophy that it is much more predictable, it is of course more driven by technology as compared to wind. And of course it will be a cheaper form of power and will be a more viable form of power for all the utilities to purchase the solar power.
So when we got wind we were basically looking at the hybrid projects and the FDRE projects. And that’s why we did a small project of 150megawatts which we are executing in Gujarat. So this bit like now you have seen the battery prices also coming down. So that has of course have a big impact on reducing the wind component. So the wind strategic role which was there earlier in an FDRE plan is no longer that strategic because the solar and battery is able to compete very well with the component of wind, with the uncertainties built in wind and reliability built in solar and batteries.
So that’s a big plus because in an FTRE project what you need other than volumes is the certainty because there are penalties which are there in these projects. So as a prudent developer we always try and aim for certainty. So our wind components are very low in any of these FBREs. In hybrid you can’t help it, you have to have one third component as wind. So that much bare minimum wind we will do. And of course in those projects also when we factor in a Tariff we factor in a very conservative wind CUF keeping in mind these past performances and, and that’s how we are planning to play this.
Anuj Upadhyay
Fair enough, sir. Secondly sir, on your FY30 target, so currently we are at say 2.7 operational. We’ll be adding say another 3 and a half or 4 and a half gigabyte capacity by 2728 and from there till FY30 we are targeting around 10 gigawatt just to get a sense, I don’t be too conservative in terms of capacity addition target or there’s some, you know, huge potential to revise this target going ahead. And lastly any thoughts of getting into pump, hydro or any other storage?
Nikhil Dhingra
So Anuj, there are two things there in terms of this target. So we are, when we talk about target we talk about contracted capacity and we don’t talk about installed capacity. Some of the companies talk about installed capacity which will be let’s say for us also more than 20 gigawatt when we install this around 10 gigawatts on because the solar and the battery and various other equipment which goes multiples of the contracted capacity for a 250 megawatt plant, let’s say we will have more than 500, 600 megawatts of installed capacity. So we are not, we are not focused on boosting these gigawatt targets because ultimately it’s about profitability so we don’t really document it on an installed capacity basis but our number will be quite high on installed capacity numbers and we can share with you that number.
But in terms of contracted capacity which determines Your revenue and CUF this is 7 gigawatts is what we are trying to reach. And as we move forward this 10 gigawatt again is a combination of FDRE and hybrid. So this will be leading to a huge number on installed capacity which will be 20 gigawatt plus. So that is one. And secondly in terms of the, the, the, the execution capacity of a single corporate. So right now Andy, we are you know an integrated player with EPC built in and these are all large infrastructure projects. So in terms of the increasing our ability to execute more right the, the land is, is one of the primary constraints because you get, you get to, you need a large parcel of contiguous land which government land can help you get there.
So we are trying, like we mentioned earlier, we are trying to secure large portion of lands which will help us improve this run rate on a per year execution. So of course bidding is easy, right. Because you can bid but in terms of building you have to have A pipeline which you are delivering as you mentioned. So for that this bit of contiguous land having upfront before the bid is important. So I would say we are rational rather than conservative. But in terms of the last bit you asked about psp, psp we do have a project in Uttar Pradesh but of course we will be very careful in terms of not doing it on merchant basis. We will always do it on a PPA and of course we will factor in the timeline it takes to build up a PSP plant and the various associated approvals.
We hear that the government is looking at rationalizing these approvals and process time because government also wants to push this form of power. So we will be ready whenever that opportunity comes up because we do have a couple of projects which we can take up. But of course as of now the battery power looks like something which you can opportunistically, opportunistically scale up and the government is also looking at that. If you look at the state government capex around battery and psp. So we are oriented in the direction which the market is today and we will keep on developing the asset but we will not do capex until we get a good tariff which is in sync with the construction risk of a psp.
Anuj Upadhyay
That’s helpful. And what quantum this PSP would be in up which you mentioned,
Nikhil Dhingra
It’s a, it’s a 600 into 6 megawatt hour of storage. Six hours of storage. So that’s the approval. We have got the. We are very close to getting the stage one forest and we are in discussions with CEA for getting the DTR approved so. And we already have applied to state for the incentive scheme approval as well.
Anuj Upadhyay
Fine sir, that’s quite helpful. Thanks and wish you good luck.
Nikhil Dhingra
Thanks a lot.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I take this as the last question and would now like to hand the conference over to. To Mr. Sabri Hazarika for closing comments. Over to you sir.
Sabri Hazarika
Yeah, so. So I’d like to thank the management and all the participants for the insightful comments. Before ending I’d request Mr. Manojapadya sir for his closing comment. Over to you sir.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay
Good morning. I would like to start with. While Nikhil has touched upon the performance of the year but I would like to also mention some of the area we could have done better I think PPA signing. We were expecting to sign 400 to 500 megawatt last quarter but unfortunately it shifted to this quarter. So this forecasting of signing the PPA is one learning. I think we have to build Inbuilt in our system although we have a very limited control how the REIA deals with the state government. But this area I think I would like my team to work on so we are able to give you this thing.
Second area is I think we wanted to do our Seeker 300 megawatt solar plant. We wanted to install by the 31st of March but somehow we slipped by 60 days. And while the installation we also faced India Pakistan issues so few days we had to really shut the installation and commissioning. So although we wanted to do much before that. But this is a learning that we need to really keep some more time for commissioning. As commissioning is becoming more and more tougher because the regulatory requirement of the power factor correction harmonics flickering, the government is more and more looking to ensure that all the plants are compliant for the grid stability.
The similar thing happened with our 50 megawatt. We wanted to commission this thing but I’m pleased to share with you that it is under commissioning. Maybe in this week we will be able to share with you that they get commissioned. I would like to highlight that we continue to focus on the technology innovation and execution to build future ready and sustainable portfolio. We want to cater the India’s requirement of growing energy demand. And I see that this will more happen right in the FDRE or a base power or a peaking power instead of the solar time or wind time power.
You will see more and more such adoption and we are ready to do that. And as a company we have been testing this solution for quite a long. We have made a remarkable progress this year. I would like to. I wish to express my sincere thanks to all the investors, lenders, regulatory authorities and employees for our success. I thank you for your commitment, excellence and belief in my vision. Thank you again. Thanks.
operator
On behalf of Emkay Global Financial Services limited That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.
Nikhil Dhingra
Thank you.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay
Thank you.