FCC

Torrent Power wholly acquires 50 MW solar project in Maharashtra

2021-08-03

Torrent Power has signed an agreement with Lightsource India and Lightsource Renewable Energy Holdings Ltd (LREHL) to acquire 100% of its stake and the total securities of Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of the 50 MW solar project of LREHL Renewables India.

The 50 MW project was commissioned back in April 2018 in Maharashtra. Lightsource British Petroleum (BP) won the bid to develop this 50 MW project in a 450 MW bidding in 2016 by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

The SPV has a long-term power purchase agreement for 25 years with SECI. The SPV was incorporated in 2016 to generate electricity from renewable energy.

Lightsource BP is a strategic partnership between LREHL and BP. The company has an international holding, with Lightsource BP having 51% holding and UK Climate Investments with 49% holding. Lightsource Renewable Energy India is a subsidiary of Lightsource BP.

Lightsource Renewable Energy and UK Climate Investment, part of the Green Investment Group in Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, signed an agreement in 2017 to form a partnership to fund development, acquisition and ownership of the large-scale solar projects in India.

The estimated transaction value is Rs 3.17 billion, with viable gap funding of Rs 98 million to be received by SECI to the company. The acquisition will be completed in two months after signing the power purchase agreement.

Sources informed the media that Torrent has an average installed power generating capacity of 3,879 MW, having 2,730 MW of gas-based capacity, 787 MW of renewable capacity, and 362 MW of coal-based capacity.

The solar project acquisition was at its peak in the second quarter (Q2) of 2021, with the highest capacity of 25 GW. 135 solar projects of 39.3 GW capacity were acquired in 1H 2021, as compared to 91 projects of 14.7 GW in 1H 2020. The project developers and power producers were most active in Q2 2021, increasing the power capacity up to 13.3 GW.

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