Kanoria Group enters power services through JV with Germany's Uniper

India Uniper Power Services will offer a range of flexible and customised services

India Power Corporation Limited (IPCL), which is a Kanoria Foundation company, entered into a joint-venture (JV) with Germany-based Uniper to offer a range of flexible and customised services to customers in the Indian power business.

The portfolio of the 50:50 JV, India Uniper Power Services, would include plant operations and maintenance, asset monitoring software and analytical tools, flexibilisation of units, lifecycle extension, supply and integration of pollution control equipment and systems, etc.

IPCL, formerly known as DPSC Limited, was incorporated in 1919. Kanoria-promoted SREI Infra bought the company six years back.

"The JV will combine strengths of strong partners with complementary scope and portfolio. Uniper's experience of owning and managing a portfolio of about 40 Gw in various countries will allow India Uniper Power Services to adopt best practices and make thermal power plants more competitive. IPCL's expertise and knowledge of the local market will help the company become a key player in the thermal generation sector and focus on improving the efficiency of power plants in India," said Hemant Kinoria, chairman, IPCL.

Klaus Schäfer, CEO of Uniper, said, “Renewables-build out will impact the operating regime of conventional power plants with a need for an increased plant flexibility. In addition, a tightened environmental policy will require upgrades and new power plant emission control processes. Uniper has gained substantial experience in all these areas within its own fleet over many decades.”

Kanoria said that the power capacity in India is getting older and would need to shift to better efficiency standards and operations. "For the next three-four years, no new plants would come up and the existing ones are stuck in several operational and regulatory issues. We believe it is not wise to scrap off older plants. Instead, we should make them more efficient," he said.

The company said that with the current and expected changes in the power sector, there is a huge potential to offer services to existing and newly built power plants. "This would help them improve their operations and be ready for market and regulatory changes as the power market rapidly evolves in terms of emission standards, flexibility and efficiency," IPCL executives said.