The Venture Intelligence Blog

A Japan Times article quotes Venture Intelligence data on PE investments in the energy sector in India: Venture Intelligence, which tracks private equity deals in India, estimates that energy companies in the country attracted $1.2 billion worth of such investments (across 27 deals) in 2015, which was more than twice that in 2014.   Major energy investments in 2015 included the $265 million investment in ReNew Power Ventures that was led by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, followed by the $256 million buyout of Greenko Group’s Indian assets by GIC Singapore, according to Venture Intelligence. In 2016, private equity deals in India stood at $662 million. Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India.

Businessworld has a Cover Story on the topic with special focus on the travails of wind energy in Tamilnadu , hydel energy in Uttarakhand and the emerging rooftop solar opportunity . Tamil Nadu has an installed capacity of 6,969 MW, or 40 per cent of our total wind energy capacity of 17,352 MW and 28 per cent of the total renewable energy capacity. Wind energy also accounts for 12.64 per cent of the electricity generated in the state (9,763 MU out of 77,218 MU). More than 95 per cent of the country’s wind energy potential is in the coastal states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. And while Karnataka has the largest potential, best wind sites are in Tamil Nadu. Four prominent passes in the state — Palghat, Shencottah, Aralvoimozhi and Kambam —  have average annual wind speeds ranging from 18 km/hr to 25 km/hr. In Karnataka, the average is about 10 km/hr.   Tamil Nadu, however, is power deficit — the average power availabil...

Businessworld has recently covered the crisis in the Indian power sector and the problems facing private sector investments in the sector. From the Cover Story titled "Burn Ambitions": If there is an apparent sliver of hope, it’s over discoms — the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs’ nod to recast their debt of Rs 1,20,000 crore. Matters had come to head. In the absence of cost-reflective tariffs (a political hot potato), discoms financed the interest on loans through more of the same. The RBI asked banks to apply the brakes on loans to discoms. “We have decided to stop generation, but we cannot afford to take a deferred payment as 80 per cent of our cost (of power) is for buying coal. We pay CIL through a letter of credit and cannot afford this. We can’t compromise,” says NTPC’s Choudhury. ...According to Crisil, nine states — Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand — account for 85 per...