IndiGrid announced that it has deepened its partnership with British International Investment (BII) and the Norwegian Climate Investment Fund to form a new platform, EnerGrid.
This platform will focus on bidding and developing greenfield transmission and standalone battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in India.
The Indian transmission sector is experiencing a significant uptick in its bidding and development momentum on the back of the country’s increasing power demand, changing energy mix and focus on energy transition. According to the latest estimates released by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), India will require an additional 170,000 circuit kilometers of transmission lines and 47 GW of BESS capacity over the next eight years to facilitate evacuation of its growing generation capacity, a release by IndiGrid said.
Earlier this fiscal, IndiGrid announced the first phase of this partnership, under which BII and Norfund (through KNI India AS, Norfund’s joint venture with KLP, Norway’s largest pension company) invested in three of IndiGrid’s existing greenfield transmission projects. [Read full story]
With the EnerGrid platform, IndiGrid, BII and Norfund, alongside KLP through KNI India AS, have committed approximately $300 million, with each partner contributing around $100 million.
This capital will enable EnerGrid to target projects worth approximately $1.2 billion over the next few years. Post commencement of commercial operations, these projects will be fully acquired by IndiGrid at a pre-agreed enterprise value.
This will be a symbiotic partnership where IndiGrid will lend its pole position in and understanding of the nuanced Indian energy sector, and BII and Norfund will provide access to capital from global development financial institutions and the Norwegian private pension fund.
Leveraging power transmission
Commenting on the partnership, which was signed during COP29, Harsh Shah, Chief Executive Officer & Whole Time Director, IndiGrid, said, “Indian power sector is going through a metamorphosis to facilitate achievement of the country’s net zero goals. The transmission sector is witnessing a bidding pipeline like never before which we are looking to leverage to drive growth. This partnership will ensure that while IndiGrid continues to look for synergistic brownfield projects to acquire, we can also meaningfully create a growth pipeline for us in the under-construction space.
We are delighted to have partnered with reputed names like BII and Norfund as they will lend their credibility to the new platform while guiding it in implementation of best-in-class ESG and corporate governance practices.”
Also read: IndiGrid sees power transmission bid pipeline of over Rs.65,000 crore
