| Juniper Green Energy Private Limited | ||||
| Rating reaffirmed at 'CRISIL A / Stable' | ||||
| Rating Action | ||||
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| Note: None of the Directors on CRISIL Ratings Limited’s Board are members of rating committee and thus do not participate in discussion or assignment of any ratings. The Board of Directors also does not discuss any ratings at its meetings. | ||||
| 1 crore = 10 million | ||||
| Refer to Annexure for Details of Instruments & Bank Facilities |
Detailed Rationale CRISIL Ratings has reaffirmed its ‘CRISIL A/Stable’ rating to the long-term bank facility of Juniper Green Energy Pvt Ltd (JGEPL).
The rating reflects the healthy revenue visibility and debt-servicing metrics of the company. These strengths are partially offset by susceptibility to risks related to the counterparty and those inherent in renewable energy assets. |
Analytical Approach For arriving at the rating, CRISIL Ratings has taken a standalone view on project debt facilities of 30 MW solar power project of JGEPL due to a ring-fencing structure and separate TRA of the project. |
Key Rating Drivers & Detailed Description Strengths:
The 25-year PPA signed with Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) minimizes offtake risk. The entire 30 MW capacity became operational in March 2020. The PPA has a fixed tariff of Rs 3.15 per kilowatt hour (kWh) throughout its tenure. Additionally, the company will continue to receive safeguard duty recovery through additional tariffs of Rs 0.25-0.09 per kWh from MSEDCL during the PPA tenure. The project is also registered as Gold Standard and eligible to sell voluntary emission reduction (VER) certificates.
A fixed tariff PPA with MSEDCL and safeguard duty payments should ensure healthy average debt service coverage ratio over the debt tenure. Although JGEPL has bullet payment of about Rs 21.3 crore in fiscal 2036, CRISIL Ratings believes this can potentially be refinanced given the healthy remaining life of the asset and PPA.
Weakness
Cash flow remains sensitive to plant load factors (PLFs), which depend entirely on solar irradiance and weather patterns that are inherently unpredictable. This uncertainty may impact debt-servicing capability. The project’s performance has improved year over year and has performed at the P90 PLF expectations in fiscal 2023. This is expected to continue in the medium term. Sustained under-performance with respect to P90 will be a rating sensitivity factor.
The long-term PPA with MSEDCL for the entire project capacity exposes JGEPL to risks related to credit and delay in payment from a single counterparty. The company has been receiving payments within 37 days since the start of commercial operations. Any material change in the payment cycle will be a rating sensitivity factor.
JGEPL also maintains a debt service reserve account (DSRA) covering two quarters of debt servicing in the form of a bank guarantee. The bank guarantee does not have any recourse to project assets. Any change in the terms of the guarantee is a rating sensitivity factor. |
Liquidity: Adequate Liquidity should be adequate, with cash flow projected around Rs 19 crores in fiscal 2024 (at P90 PLF) against yearly debt of around Rs 14 crores. JGEPL has DSRA covering six months of debt servicing in the form of BG (without recourse support from project). Additionally, MSEDCL has issued a revolving letter of credit for one month of average billing as a payment security. |
Outlook Stable JGEPL is expected to benefit from a long-term PPA with MSEDCL, short receivables cycle and better operational performance with the PLF exceeding P90 levels. |
Rating Sensitivity factors Upward factors
Downward factors
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About the Company JGEPL operates 30 MW (AC) capacity with 10 MW each at Nandgaon, Yeola and Deola (all in Maharashtra). The project became operational with entire capacity in January-March 2020. The company has a 25-year PPA with MSEDCL at a tariff of Rs 3.15 per kWh.
Juniper Green Energy started operations in October 2018 & currently has 570 MW solar projects operational in Maharashtra & Gujarat. All the projects have PPAs with the respective state discoms. |
Key Financial Indicators
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Any other information: The project is ring fenced with a separate TRA account, with agreement clauses as below:
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Note on complexity levels of the rated instrument: |
Annexure - Details of Instrument(s)
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| Annexure - Rating History for last 3 Years | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| All amounts are in Rs.Cr. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Annexure - Details of Bank Lenders & Facilities | ||||||||
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Criteria Details
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