Long-term Finance at Low Rates for Power, RE in Budget, expects ICRA

Availability of adequate long-term financing at competitive rates is key in achieving India’s renewable goals, rating agency ICRA said as part of its pre-Budget expectations report.

The Union Budget for FY23 will be tabled in the Parliament on February 1.

The rating agency said that incentives and relevant policy measures are needed to promote investments in the energy storage segment, considering the increasing share of renewables in the electricity generation mix.

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“This apart, policy measures are required to revive the stranded gas-based projects, which would enable availability of balancing power sources,” it said. Not to mention ensuring these do not turn into stressed assets for the banking system already weighed down by the impact of Covid.

To augment domestic manufacturing of solar modules, the Centre must increase the production-linked incentives outlay for the manufacturers, it added. Again, something that has already seen some moves by expansion of the ALMM scheme recently

For power distribution companies, the budgetary allocation must be increased to improve transmission infrastructure (both at intra-state and inter-state levels) for evacuation power from the regions having high renewable energy potential.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the COP26 meet in Glasgow, said India aims to increase its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030, besides the country wishes to fulfil 50 per cent of its energy requirements from renewable energy sources by 2030.

Also, India intends to reduce its total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030 and ultimately, become a net zero carbon emitter by 2070.

Interestingly, the agency has not weighed in with a view on further privatisation of discoms, or a netter approach to the subsidy issue for power sector, which has complicated matters for players in many states.