Gensol: Failed carbon credit firm to big solar power consultant

Anmol Jaggi was a name in the carbon credit market in 2010, advising large corporate houses on how to be energy efficient and make money from it. With close to 25 million carbon credits and around 400 clients in India, his company, launched in 2007, had reached its zenith. But as the carbon credit market crashed, so did the plans of the company.

Resurrecting itself with upcoming solar power, the Gensol group, with its two promoters Anmol and Puneet Jaggi, has grown to become the largest player in solar design and engineering (D&E) consulting, along with operations and management (O&M) contracts for 2,000 Mw of solar power projects. The company has 50 per cent of the market in solar power consulting with a client list that includes Greenko, Essel Infra, Suzlon, China Light and Power, ReNew Power and Shapoorji Pallonji.

“We forayed into solar power with almost a similar set of clients with whom we worked for in carbon credits. We were consultants for most of the first movers in the solar energy market,” says Jaggi in an interaction with Business Standard. He adds that Gensol has designed and engineered nearly 6.5 GW of India’s 14 GW of installed solar power projects.

He says their background in the energy industry and being based in Ahmedabad provided the brothers a natural advantage in reaching out to companies entering the solar energy industry. “We tapped into the initial growth in solar power in Gujarat, and then pan-India,” he says, adding falling tariffs have exerted a lot of pressure on project design.

Gensol clocked annual revenues of ~75 crore in the last two years and is aiming to touch ~100 crore this year. “We have invested in the right areas, we are a profitable company and we are doing reasonably well. We are sufficiently funded at present and are not looking for any funding,” Jaggi says.

The other major business for Gensol is O&M contracts for solar power projects. “In the solar value chain, it is usually the most neglected part. While the company builds the project, maintenance is rarely an area of focus. We sensed a latent opportunity and decided to pursue it,” Jaggi adds.

Gensol entered into a joint venture with with Solarig, a Spanish company with a global O&M contract portfolio of 1.2 GW. “More than financial engineering, technology and project engineering will be the game changer in the Indian solar energy industry. As companies compete to bring down the cost of power, investment in efficient systems is key to healthy returns,” Jaggi points out.

He says the O&M market is witnessing 50-60 per cent growth, quarter on quarter, but adds that the domestic solar power market is stagnant and the company added 7-8 GW of contracts in the last two years.

The Jaggi brothers have incubated six small ventures, including Prescinto Technologies, which provides supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) services. SCADA is used for remote monitoring and control of power demand and supply.

“D&E is 70 per cent of our business, O&M is about 28 per cent and SCADA is the new segment with only 2 per cent. We expect to increase the SCADA revenue share to 15-16 per cent in the next eight months. We aim to be at over 30-35 per cent margin in our existing business by 2019 with D&E, O&M, SCADA and energy storage,” Jaggi says.

Calling it “much more than Amazon” for solar power products, the Jaggi brothers have launched Ezysolare, an online marketplace for solar equipment installers in India, and Ezybox, a mobile, solar-powered inverter.