Vibrant Energy, a renewable energy company which primarily sells electricity to corporate and industrial (C&I) customers, has set an ambitious target to have renewable assets of about 5 GW over the next three years. Macquarie GIG & ATN International backed Vibrant expects the C&I segment to contribute significantly to the new renewable capacity addition in the coming years.
The Hyderabad-headquartered company says it delivers green power at “significant discounts” to grid tariffs to C&I clients.
Vibrant’s Managing Director, Srinivasan Viswanathan stressed that the price for corporate customers depends on several factors including the size of the project, the technology used (tracker or fixed tilt, 2.2MW turbine vs 3.6MW turbine), open access charges depending on states and voltage levels of the generator.
“However, a good metric that we find relevant is the savings percentage vis-à-vis grid prices. We see that on average the C&I customer could achieve 25-37 per cent savings under the group captive model,” Viswanathan told businessline.
For India to hit its targetted 500 GW of renewable capacity by 2030, an annual capacity addition of 45-50 GW is required, up from the 12+ GW level now. Now, the total renewable capacity stands at about 118 GW.
Open access
Vibrant Energy has witnessed significant growth in the C&I segment in the past couple of years. Today, the company is sitting on an AUM (asset under management) of 1.1 GW with about 2-2.5 GW worth of new development in the pipeline.
Viswanathan said the company has both land and grid linkage to offer energy to corporate customers.
The company sells energy in ‘open access’ mode, both interstate and intra-states. With some of the reforms that have happened in this space, the government is pro-open access. Reforms such as green open access to allow any consumer of greater than 100 kW to buy through open access and freeing up the ISTS (Inter State Transmission System) and CTU (Central Transmission Utility) grids for corporate consumption are major measures. This was not happening before.
“Today, I can deliver power to any place. I can use the best radiation for solar and the best site for wind and deliver power across the country,” said Viswanathan.
The company expects a large part of the yearly addition in new capacity will start to get serviced by the C&I clients on the back of their ESG and decarbonisation goals and sustainability agenda to support climate change solutions.
Vibrant Energy has been servicing clients in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and other markets. All the development is on the hybrid. It has been delivering a mix of solar and wind energy.