Torrent, Greenko, Adani, Tata eye Odisha discom
NEW DELHI: At least four companies— Tat a Power, A dani Group, Torrent Power and Greenko Group—have shown interest in acquiring Central Electricity Supply Utility of Odisha (CESU), according to two people aware of the development.
The electricity distribution privatisation well help supply electricity to around 2 million consumers in the distribution circles of Bhubaneswar, Cut tack, Paradeep and Dhenkanal.
Price water house Cooper sis running the bid process in what is the first such sale in more than decade.
The interest in the distribution utility with an annual revenue of around ₹3,200 crore comes against the back drop of the ND A government’s power sector reform measures such as the proposed separation of the wire and electricity supply business.
Also, there is a push for direct benefit transfer (DBT) for better targeting of subsidies and tariff slab rationalisation.
“The sale of C ES U under process in Odisha is the first opportunity to participate in the Indian power distribution sector as an owner since the privatization of the disco ms in Delhi in 2003,” said Chan dan Mis hr a, director, power and utilities at PwC India.
The requests for proposals (RFPs) documents were on sale till December last year. This will now be followed by a due diligence process by the interested parties with the bids expected by March-end.
Only one bidder had emerged during the earlier attempt top rivatise CESU, leading to the process being scrapped.
“Thisis also significant since it is the first of its kind being undertaken by a regulatory commission in the country under the provisions of the Electricity Act 2003,” Mishra added.
The Central Electricity Supply Company of O dish a Ltd( C ES CO ), CESU’s forerunner, was privatised in 1999 with the licence granted to US-based electricity producer A ES Corp. The O dish a Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) revoked the licence in 2005.
While spokespersons for Tata Power and A dani Group declined comment, Greenko’s founder, president and joint managing director Ma heshKol li confirmed his firm’s interest in CESU.
Mint reported on 4 October about Greenko’s $750 million equity investment plans for buying power transmission and distribution assets to diversify, given the uncertainties surrounding India’s renewable energy industry.
Queries emailed to a Torrent Power spokesperson on January 5 remained unanswered.
Odisha’s energy secretary Hemant Sharma also didn’t respond to phone calls or to amessage left on his cellphone earlier this month.
The interest in electricity distribution has been picking up with India’s clean energy firms such as ReNew Power Ventures Pvt Ltd and GreenkoGro up looking at diversifying across the electricity value chain.