Public sector Energy Efficiency Services Ltd is hungry for cash.

This week it will raise a $200-million loan from ADB, and negotiations are on with the World Bank for another $300 million. EESL Managing Director Saurabh Kumar says the company’s IPO could hit the market in the third or fourth quarter of 2018-19, but even if there is a delay, “we will definitely be a listed company in 2019-20.” A green bond issue is also on the cards.

EESL’s growth calls for continuous infusion of funds, says Kumar. The company is likely to end the current financial year with a turnover of ₹1,500 crore, double last year’s. In 2014-15, EESL was a ₹70-crore company. Kumar is confident that EESL will be a ₹10,000-crore company in 2019-20.

Jointly held by four public sector power companies — NTPC, PGCIL, PFC and REC — EESL strives for energy efficiency by replacing power-guzzling equipment with efficient ones. This it does at at its own cost, and recovers the outlay and makes profits from the savings.

For instance, EESL runs the Centre’s ‘Ujala’ scheme, under which it replaces conventional lamps with LED bulbs. According to its website www.ujala.gov.in , since the beginning of the scheme in January 2015, it has replaced 22.15 crore bulbs with LED, saving ₹11,510 crore, and avoiding peak demand of 5,763 MW. Households pay ₹10 for an LED bulb, the rest of the cost of the bulb is deducted from the consequent saving in energy bills. (LEDs are highly energy efficient. According to one calculation a 12 W LED gives the same light as a 60 W incandescent lamp; LED bulbs can last 25,000 hours against the 1,000-hour life of incandescent lamps.)

Last year, EESL started a similar programme with ceiling fans, and has so far distributed six lakh fans. For both LED bulbs and fans, the company has invested ₹6,000 crore — funded largely by loans from the ADB, AFD (of France) and German development funding agency KfW.

Kumar says EESL will need to invest another ₹32,000 crore over the next three years. He splits the outlay as: ₹14,000 crore for municipal and agri water pumps replacement, ₹9,000 crore for street- lights (an ongoing programme), ₹5,000 crore under the Ujala programme, and ₹4,000 crore for making buildings use less energy.

Further, EESL has just opened offices in London, Colombo, Dhaka and Bangkok.

While Kumar refused a comment on an accusation by a Congress spokesman that EESL was involved in a ₹20,000-crore scam, the Government, in a press release, termed the allegations “false, malicious, misleading, motivated and devoid of any facts.” It said the company follows a transparent procurement policy that has been endorsed by the multilateral lending agencies.

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