Adani’s ₹2,000 Crore Green Energy Initiative: Building Two Transmission Lines in Mumbai
According to a senior employee of Adani Electricity in Mumbai, the company is spending more than Rs2,000 crore to construct two new transmission lines in the city to improve its network. This is a part of their drive to fortify their network as they get closer to becoming more environmentally friendly by getting up to 60% of the city’s energy requirements from renewable sources by 2027.
The Thane-Aarey Colony line and the 84 ckm Kharghar (in Navi Mumbai) Vikhroli line are the two new transmission lines. They are located in the northeastern neighborhood of the megalopolis. By 2025, the Vikhroli line will be completed.
The official told that “We hope to begin the work on the project this October. The Thane line will begin after the first line and will be commissioned in 2027.”
By obtaining $1,700 crore in debt from foreign lenders for the projects being carried out by its parent firm Adani Transmission, the company last week achieved financial closure.
“We will be investing more than ₹2,000 crore for this, of which ₹1,700 crore will be debt-funded,” the official said, adding the project also includes setting up a 400-kV substation which will raise the transmission capacity by 1,500 MW, as the company expects the peak demand for the megapolis to cross 5,000 mw mark by FY25 from around 4,000 mw now.
The official said that the company, which serves more than 34 lakh users, or 6% of the city’s total consumers, has made rapid progress in enhancing the supply of green energy to the metropolis.
The official responded in the affirmative, saying “very much or even earlier given what we have done so far,” when asked if the Adani group company, which entered the city’s distribution business three years ago by purchasing the license from the now bankrupt Anil Ambani group company Reliance Energy for 18,000 crores, is on track to meet the recent public statement on increasing the green energy mix to 60% by 2027.
“We’ll be following a hybrid model of solar and wind and given our current success the company is quite confident of making it or even bettering it,” he said.
The construction of the city’s first-ever 400 kV substation facility is part of the transmission lines project. 34 km of 400 kV and 220 kV transmission lines, as well as a 400 kV substation at Vikhroli, are part of the Kharghar-Vikhroli project.
According to him, the city needs this project badly because the transmission corridor’s current capacity is insufficient to provide more power to the city.
This project would make it possible to bring 1000 mw more power into Mumbai, helping to fulfill the city’s growing demand.
In December 2019, Adani obtained the project’s license.
On Monday, Adani Energy Solutions obtained financial clearance from foreign lenders for a further USD 1 billion for its green transmission connection project.
This credit line, according to the business, is a component of the $700 million revolving project finance initiative that will be secured in October 2021 for its portfolio of ongoing transmission assets. DBS Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank, Siemens Bank, Société Générale, StanChart, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation are the lenders contributing to the credit line.
According to the official, increasing the company’s mix of renewable energy will enable it to save between 70 and 100 pence per unit on purchase costs, which it will entirely pass along to customers.
He added that even though green power is more expensive than traditional power, 50,000 of the 34 lakh consumers have chosen to only use it.
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Content Credit: MINT