Tata Power to focus on renewables, distribution: Chandrasekharan

Tata Power has a clear growth plan with focus on renewables and distribution businesses, N Chandrasekharan, Chairman of the company, said on Monday.

“As a utility scale generator of renewable energy, the company continues to grow its EPC solar business. The company intends to add additional capacity to grow to 15 gigawatts size in the coming few years,” Chandrasekharan said at the company’s annual general meeting.

He said in the consumer renewables business, the company would focus on building scale in its rooftop solar, solar pumps, EV charging systems and home automation businesses. The company is witnessing strong growth in rooftop solar and solar pumps segments.

Distribution licences

“In the distribution segment, under challenging operating environment, the company successfully completed the acquisition of three distribution licence areas in Odisha and one more in April this financial year. In the first year itself, strong progress has been made and total number of consumers have increased to 12 million. The company now distributes power in Mumbai, Delhi, Ajmer and Odisha,” Chandrasekharan said.

In Mundra, this year, the lower coal prices helped curtail losses. Based on studies, the company believes that coal prices will moderate in medium to long term, thereby reducing the support requirement.

On reduction of debt, Chandrasekharan said the company has continued to divest the non-core assets in order to simplify the business. “Apart from the sale of the defence business, this year, the company completed the divestment of its South Africa wind assets and its shipping business,” he said adding that deleveraging of the balance sheet is a core focus area.

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