The Indian subsidiary of Singaporean energy company Sembcorp has sued Siemens Energy in a pending arbitration case. The lawsuit is aimed at preventing the German energy company from completing its alleged plans to divest its Indian wind business, according to a number of Indian media outlets, including India Times, citing court documents from Sembcorp.

EnergyWatch has reached out to Sembcorp’s Indian subsidiary and Siemens Energy. The latter states that it has no comment on the case.

The case dates back to 2018, when Siemens Gamesa received its largest order ever in India at the time. Sembcorp, through its subsidiary Green Infra Wind Energy Ltd (GIWEL), placed an EPC order for 300MW consisting of 143 turbines.

However, the developer believed that Siemens Gamesa breached the contract in various ways, prompting GIWEL to cancel the contract and instead sue the turbine manufacturer for INR 8.16bn (EUR 91m). However, this was met with a counter-suit from Siemens Gamesa, which demanded INR 19.56bn from the Indian developer.

Subsequently, the turbine manufacturer has made additional counterclaims of INR 2.93bn, bringing the total claim to INR 22.5bn. However, GIWEL and Sembcorp are far from wanting to get out of the case.

”GIWEL and its legal advisors have reviewed the additional counterclaims and concluded, based on the available information, that GIWEL is in a strong position to defend itself against this counterclaim against the supplier,” the developer stated in a statement on May 24 this year, which was posted by the legal media Jus Mundi.

On the contrary, the company is now trying to block Siemens Gamesa from leaving the country. Although the German energy company has hinted for some time that the announced streamlining of its geographical focus could include India, it is not yet official that the Indian assets have been put up for sale. 

(English edit by Kristoffer Grønbæk)