ReNew Power targets 3.500 Mw extra capacity every year

To maintain its share of 10% green capacity by 2020

The Goldman Sachs-supported ReNew Power plans to add 3,500 Mw every year to maintain its share of 10 per cent green capacity by 2020.  

The company, which has 1,130 Mw of commissioned capacity, will require $10-12 billion funding, of which equity will be around $3 billion.

India plans to add 175 Gw capacity by 2020, for which 35,000 Mw will need to be added every year. “Of this 35,000 Mw, we plan to take a 10 per cent share,” Sumant Sinha, founder and chief executive officer, ReNew Power, told Business Standard.

ReNew Power would require $8-10 billion in debt funding over the next five years, he said. The company is looking at funding options, including private placement of equity and an initial public offer. ReNew Power had last year planned an IPO but put it on hold.
 

Besides Goldman Sachs, which has invested $385 million in equity, the company has funding from the Asian Development Bank, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Global Environment Fund. It has raised $650 million equity and has an asset base of $2 billion.

Sinha said the Centre was promoting renewable energy but there were state-level issues like grid curtailment. He said the next stage of capacity addition in renewable energy would have to be driven by grid management through forecasting and scheduling.

"Savings through this have to be understood better and transferred to bidders as an incentive, currently this goes to the states," he said.

He said with the roll-out of the debt restructuring scheme for power distribution companies, their finances were likely to improve, giving them more space to buy power.

Sinha, a former chief operating officer at Suzlon Energy, had founded ReNew Power in 2011. It has 2,900 Mw of commissioned and under-construction clean energy assets.

Besides, ReNew Power has a development pipeline of 1,800 Mw of solar, wind and distributed solar projects. "We hope to have 2,000 Mw commissioned capacity by the end of this year," Sinha said.

ReNew Power operates in Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh.