India Power in talks with 3 companies to acquire renewable projects

21 Aug 2017

India Power Corporation is in talks with three large non-power companies in Gujarat and West Bengal for acquiring renewable generation capacity totalling 110 mw, a top official said.

“Having successfully acquired 1,000 mw thermal power capacity of Meenakshi Energy from French power company Engie in February last year, we are now looking at acquiring renewable assets from non-power companies that are not keen on maintaining these assets,” said Raghav Kanoria, managing director at the Kolkata-based power generation and utility firm. “The capacities under radar include two solar generation units of 25 mw each and a wind power capacity of 60 mw,” he said.

Due diligence for the properties are currently on and the company intends to make an announcement soon, he said. Kanoria did not disclose how much India Power would shell out for the three assets, but said the company is likely to invest Rs 1,000-1,500 crore in the segment, “including the acquisitions for which we are in talks”, in the next couple of years when it plans to increase its capacity to 300 mw from 130 mw “through organic and inorganic routes”.

While refusing to divulge any name, Kanoria said one of the companies India Power is in talks with for renewable energy plant buy is “a large plastic product manufacturer”. At present, India Power group, with a total asset base of Rs 15,000 crore, has wind generation capacities of about 95 mw and solar generation capacity of another 36 mw.

“We will be looking at stressed assets in renewable segment, especially from companies that set them up at a time when cost of renewable generation was high,” he said. “These are capacities which have the potential of increasing efficiencies by making marginal investments.

Source-ET