AMSC (Nasdaq:AMSC), a global solutions provider serving wind and power grid industry leaders, today announced that it has received a $15 million order for wind turbine electrical control systems (ECS) from Inox Wind Limited, part of India's Inox Group of Companies. The Company expects the majority of shipments under this contract to occur during fiscal year 2015. This is the seventh order that AMSC has received from Inox since the company began volume production of its 2 megawatt (MW) wind turbines, which were licensed from AMSC in May 2009.
"Together with AMSC's wind turbine design expertise and smart electrical control systems, Inox is delivering wind turbines with some of the highest availability, reliably and power in India," said Devansh Jain, director of Inox Wind Limited. "We have been successful in growing our business and taking market share in India as we continue to work towards our goal of being the preferred wind solutions provider to independent power producers, utilities, and large corporations."
According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), India has more than 20 gigawatts (GW) of installed wind capacity. The government recently restored a tax incentive that benefits the wind industry. BNEF expects this incentive to result in wind installations of 2.6 GW in 2014, which would be a three year high for the country. Wind installations are expected to increase steadily to 3.5 GW of installations in 2016.
"The effects of this most recent order from Inox are to extend our existing backlog and provide us greater visibility into fiscal 2015 revenues," said Daniel P. McGahn, President and CEO, AMSC. "Inox continues to execute on its ambitious growth plan and its planned IPO later this year is expected to provide the capital needed to continue on its path of being a major player in the Indian wind market."
AMSC's ECS are an integrated, high-performance suite of power electronics systems that include the wind turbine power converter cabinet, internal power supply and various controls. Together, these systems serve as the "brains" of the wind turbine and enable reliable, high-performance operation by controlling power flows, regulating voltage, monitoring system performance, controlling the pitch of the wind turbine blades and the yaw of the turbines to maximize efficiency.
AMSC reiterates its full year fiscal 2014 expectation of flat to slightly down revenues as compared to fiscal 2013.
Inox Wind Limited is part of the Inox Group of Companies. Inox Group is a $2 billion+, professionally managed business group, with interests in diverse businesses including Industrial Gases, Refrigerants, Engineering Plastics, Chemicals, Carbon Credits, Cryogenic Engineering, Renewable Energy and Entertainment. The INOX Group employs close to 9,000 people at more than 150 business units across the country and has a distribution network that is spread across more than 50 countries around the globe. Each INOX Group company is characterized by three distinct characteristics - early identification of a winning business idea, building it to a size of dominant market leadership in that segment, and attaining a profit leadership position through cutting-edge efficiency in operations. The Inox Group of Companies, besides Inox Wind Limited, includes Inox Air Products Limited, Gujarat Fluorochemicals Limited, Inox India Limited, Inox Renewables Limited, Inox Leisure Limited and Fame India limited.