Major Opportunities for Investment in India’s Power Industry

The Power Summit 2011 is bringing together power industry business leaders, policy makers, innovators, and investors to discuss India’s energy needs and challenges for the future, taking into account developments and practices across the world.

It’s a major event; the speakers at the Power Summit include many of India’s heavy-hitters, such as Sushil Kumar Shinde (Hon. Minister of State for Power),  Prakash Jaiswal (Hon. Minister of State for Coal) and Dr. Tarun Kapoor (Joint Secretary – National Solar Mission).

Sushil Kumar Shinde speaking on the first day on Wednesday 7 December.

Other key speakers and panelists include senior-level bureaucrats from the Ministries of Power, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Infrastructure, as well as state-run organizations such as the Indian Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), and NTPC- India’s state-run power generator.

The Power Summit 2011 is taking place at an opportune time for the industry- India’s power market has become the fifth largest in the world in the wake of the Ministry of Power’s goal – “Mission 2012: Power for All”. The Mission requires a huge capital investment of about US$ 200 billion. The sheer size of India’s market and the returns expected on investment capital makes this a major opportunity with tremendous potential for global companies to establish their operations in India.  The Mission also brings into relief the changes and new challenges being experienced by the industry from environmental concerns. These have led to an interest in renewable sources of energy; wind energy, solar energy, biomass power, and mini-hydro plants). There has been considerable growth in power plants based on renewable sources of energy.

The three-day Summit has discussions and presentations from the Indian Government, Ministry of Power as well as energy businessmen and investors. On Wednesday 7 December, in a keynote speech, Union Minister of Power Sushil Kumar Shinde described the pitiable state of the power sector in the last three decades admitting that India was way behind other countries. India has consistently failed to meet the capacity addition targets in the last Five Year plans. This year, only 18,000 megawatts (MW) was added compared with 23,000 MW in the same period last year.

 

Shinde said that India was expecting a rush of investments in the crucial sector in coming years. “Private sector participation, which was 10 percent at the end of the 10th Plan, has gone up to 30 percent and will be more than 50 percent during the 12th Plan. As a result of these initiatives, we have added more than 60,000 MW during the last five-and-a-half years. More than 80,000 MW capacity building is underway for the 12th Plan,” he added.

The minister said that the country’s fast pace of economic growth coupled with increased demand from the industry had led to an unprecedented demand for power. “Private sector would have to play a key role in augmenting India’s power needs. “The segment is fully open to private investors.”

Planning Commission member Gajendra Haldia admitted that there was a great degree of wariness among investors and lenders in the sector and that this had affected investment badly. “The banks need to regain confidence in the sector before they lend any more to the power sector,” he said. The Indian Government was planning to address this and attract investment through a number of measures.