ACME Solar Holdings Ltd (ACMESOLAR) Q2FY27 Concall Transcript - Sep-2026 Qtr
Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q2 and H1 FY '27 earnings conference call of Acme Solar Holdings 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 star then zero on your touch-tone phone. I now hand the conference over to management. Thank you, and over to you.
Ankit Verma (ACME Solar Holdings Ltd): Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I am Ankit Verma, Director of Corporate Finance. I'm joined by our Chairman, Mr. Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, Mr. Nikhil Dhingra, Joint MD and CEO, and Mr. Arun Chopra, CFO. It is my pleasure to present the highlights of our perform- of our performance for the second quarter and the first half of FY '27. Let me begin with our financial performance. Total revenue for the quarter stood at INR 1,007 crore, which is up 67.5% year-on-year, while EBITDA increased 63.6% to INR 874 crore, driven primarily by short-term peak power BESS operations and renewable capacity additions. Our blended EBITDA margin was 86.7%, which comprises 90.8% from renewable generation and 78.3% from BESS operations, where the cost of power purchased to charge the batteries sits within the operating expenses. Profit after tax rose 133.5% Y-o-Y basis to INR 269 crore, which represents a PAT margin of 26.7%. Our asset base grew by INR 11,466 crore over the year to INR 28,462 crore, following the commissioning of BESS and RE projects. Coming to our business and execution execution updates, we made strong progress
Ankit Verma (ACME Solar Holdings Ltd): PPA signing, and short-term peak power BESS contracting. We have commissioned approximately 5.2 GWh of BESS capacity till date, which is the second largest BESS capacity in India as of date. And we achieved our initial half-yearly target of 5 GWh, which we mentioned in the last call. With this BESS and solar commissioning, 1.9 GW of our contracted projects are now partially commissioned. In addition, 1.7 GW of modules have been delivered to site, out of which 1.1 GW are already installed across multiple projects. Out of this installed 1.1 GW module capacity, 200 MW peak of modules is already charged and the balance is expected to be charged by November, December of this year. We signed 430 MW of FDRE PPAs during the quarter. Additionally, we yesterday signed another 400 MW FDRE PPA with NTPC, taking the overall PPA signed portfolio to 92% out of the total contracted portfolio of 8,370 MW. Through short-term BESS contracts, we have locked in more than 1,600 crore of revenue for partial sale of FY '27 capacity and more than 1,500 crore for partial sale of capacity for FY '28, with the balance to be tied up through future bids. Our CUF for the quarter improved from 24.1% to 27.8% year-on-year, and power generation grew 19.6% to 1,840 million units. Additionally, we sold 324 million units through short-term peak power BESS contracts. The weighted average cost of debt for our fully operational projects is around 8.4%. Around 65% of these borrowings are from PFC, REC, IREDA, and NaBFID whose rates follow their own long-term cost of funds and which limits interest rate volatility. Further, CRISIL has upgraded ACME Solar Holdings rating outlook to AA- positive from AA- stable. Turning to the key sector and regulatory updates, below are the favorable steps taken by the government benefiting all the stakeholders. First, BESS connectivity, CTUIL has initiated the grant of BESS connectivity under non-ROFR route, speeding up deployment. For us, it helps build a large BESS pipeline at preferred high-GHI sites in Rajasthan. Second, Green Energy Corridor Phase-III. The Union Cabinet has approved INR1.36 lakh crore for interstate transmission, intrastate transmission, and INR50,000 crore for for 50 GWh of BESS, targeting the evacuation of 135 GW of renewable energy. This is expected to open up new opportunities for us in the state-connected renewable projects. Third, the Pradhan Mantri Surya Sarovar Yojana. The scheme targets 5,000 MW of floating solar with at least 2 hours of co-located storage and provides central financial assistant of up to INR1 crore per megawatt after commissioning. This opens up new business opportunities for us in the floating solar market. And lastly, use of curtailed energy for BESS charging. Wherever the GNA is delayed, curtailed solar under the PPA can now charge BESS for merchant sale. This give us as the opportunity to commission our solar capacity ahead ahead of scheduled GNA and utilize that energy in BESS. Overall, these developments reduce risk, widen the opportunity set, and support our focus on BESS deployment. Looking ahead, let me share our upgraded capacity road map. Given our execution momentum and the scale of the opportunity, we are raising our targets across all 3 time frames. FY '27, BESS commissioning guidance raised from 10 GWh to more than 12 GWh, driven by our early deployment strategy. And by 2030, our renewable target rises from 10 GW with 25 GWh of BESS to 15 GW and 50 GWh of battery, doubling the storage component. And below are the several factors that support delivery of this road map: a strong tender pipeline, 20-plus GW of upcoming tenders across solar plus BESS, FDRE, CFD, and PHSP; 50 GWh of peak power bids already rolled out till September '27; and another 50 GWh is expected to be
Ankit Verma (ACME Solar Holdings Ltd): 200 to 250 gigawatt hour of short term peak power contracts expected in the near term near to medium terms. And 20 gigawatt hour of medium term peak only dead tenders expected shortly. And as we speak today, SECI has launched a large 4 gigawatt / 16 gigawatt hour option for 4 hours of assured peak power, which requires commissioning within the required 12 months. The tender also carries VGF funding of INR 15 lakhs per megawatt hour. Secondly, about 10 gigawatt of RE connectivity inventory that we have, which is secured and applied, for upcoming bids over and above our existing portfolio, and 5 gigawatt plus of BESS connectivity already granted. Third, about 19 gigawatt hour of BESS already contracted with reputed suppliers, including CATL, LFP, Gangfeng, Trina, and CLOU. I would now hand over to Manoj Sir to discuss strategic priorities for the company going forward.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay (ACME Solar Holdings Ltd): Thank you, Ankit. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to our shareholders, our Board of Directors, and my team, who have continuously supported and guided the company in the right direction. Our strategy going forward will rest on five pillars. Together, they are building a return led self financing renewable platform with contracted, visible cash flows. First, return on capital and profitability. We allocate capital to the highest return opportunities. Megawatt megawatt matter, but the measure we would ours- ourselves to earnings growth and the and the quality of these earnings. Second, BESS as a cash engine. On a rolling basis, we expect to operate around 10 gigawatt hour of BESS subject to tariff realization. Its cash flows fund our growth and reduce the equity needed for new projects, making this a self financing platform. Third, execution excellence. We are focused on higher CUF, continuous BESS addition, and keeping solar and balance of the system ready for upcoming projects. Being ready ahead of the grid improves margin and hedges us against transmission delays, as our assets can start earning before full GNA. Fourth, margin improvement. Curtailed solar can now charge our BESS, so energy that would otherwise be lost lifts BESS EBITDA and cash flow. And we have tied up capex for both BESS and solar below budgeted costs, building better margin in from day one. Fifth, contracted revenue visibility. Long term PPA anchor our portfolio revenue, while short term peak power contracts monetize our BESS capacity, giving us high visibility of future cash flows. With that, I conclude my remarks. Thank you for your continued support. We will now be happy to take your questions. Thank you.
Moderator: Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may please press star and 1 on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Puneet from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Puneet (HSBC): Yeah. Thank you so much and congrats on great performance and moving forward to your targets. My first question is, you know, given the context of delays in transmission, what is the revised number of capacity addition that you intend to do for FY '27 for power generation? And also, what should one think of as annual capex and capitalization plan?
Nikhil Dhingra (ACME Solar Holdings Ltd): Right, Puneet. So, of course, we we are we understand the delays in the GNA, right? And we have reoriented our strategy around it in terms of the best commissionings, which we have done. As you would have noted in our quarterly presentation, we have partially commissioned around 1.9 gigawatt of capacity through a mix of solar commissioning or best commissioning as you would have noted. So, as we are commissioning these capacity, we are realizing the revenue, which is seen in these quarters. So, if you look at the complete commissioning of an FDRE plant or a hybrid plant, that is dependent on the GNA commissioning coming online, right? And as per the current time line, we are hopeful that we will be able to do 1.5 gigawatt, right? But it could be more, it could be less by a quarter depending on the GNA commissionings. But of course, as far as the partial commissioning go, it'll be substantially higher
Nikhil Dhingra (ACME Solar Holdings Ltd): it will be substantially higher. Maybe 2.5-3 GW, because as far as AC commissioning goes, we have already charged 2.5 GW of capacity in terms of that, and if you look at revenue generation elements, we as we have clearly mentioned, we have charged 1.9 GW of capacity commissioning, because given these FDRE constructs and the you can say the peak power constructs, right, these are now distributed across multiple CTU substations. So tracking the full commissioning, right, does not mirror the revenue generation, right, because the BESS comes online early, like in one of our two of our actually plants, we have charged solar also, right, and we are using, because the GNA is not live, we are using it to charge the BESS, right? And as far as and and and the GNA is partially available, let's say at Bikaner 3, so we are supplying to NTPC during the day whenever the GNA is available, rest of the time it is going to the BESS, right? So the plant is commissioned, but of course since the GNA is not available, we are using it very productively by reducing our cost of production. So that's how we'll continue to share the details also in terms of the commissioning and also in terms of the elements commissioning.
Puneet (HSBC): Right. Yeah, that's why the 2.9 GW includes all this. Yeah.
Nikhil Dhingra (ACME Solar Holdings Ltd): Sorry, just to complete the reply on the CapEx, right? So CapEx also is something you asked. So we have done around 10,000 crores of CapEx this year till date. 6,000 Sorry, 6,000 crores of spend out of which 3.5 is capitalized and 3 is CWIP. So 6.5 thousand crore is what we have done already, and I think we will do similar amount or a higher amount in the second half of this year.
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