Energetica India - June 2020

NEWS Indian Oil, SUN Mobility Installs EV Battery Swapping Facility at Retail Outlet in Chandigarh Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) has announced that it has opened its bat- tery-swapping station for electric vehi- cles (EVs) at its retail outlet in Chandi- garh in partnership with SUN Mobility. The battery swapping facility, which is known as the Quick Interchange Sta- tion, was inducted by Petroleum Minis- ter Dharmendra Pradhan and VP Singh Badnore, Governor of Punjab & Admin - istrator of UT-Chandigarh, at Indian Oil’s fuel pump in Chandigarh. While praising the efforts of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoP&NG) and Indian Oil towards improving the environment and economic needs via a series of green initiatives, Badnore said: “battery-swapping technology is one such initiative that offers the best alternative among electric mobility solu- tions.” Speaking on the occasion, Pradhan appreciated the efforts of IndianOil and SUN Mobility in pursuing the innovative, clean energy solution, thereby contrib- uting to the Govt. of India objective of reducing vehicular emissions. The Minister also hoped that the tie-up would energize the EV markets in India. The EV opportunity is so big that every player in the eco-system will benefit from it, Pradhan said. The Minister further added electric mobility can help India meet its Paris Agreement commitment of reducing carbon emission intensity (emission per unit of GDP) by 33 to 35 per cent of 2005 level over 15 years. Thus, India can save 64 per cent of the anticipated passenger road-based mo- bility-related energy demand and 37 per cent of carbon emissions in 2030 by pursuing a shared, electric and con- nected mobility future. During the event, Sanjiv Singh, chair- man of Indian Oil, revealed the organi- zation’s plans and said it will begin with a pilot of battery swapping at one of its outlets in Chandigarh and gradually scale it up to 20 stations. He also said that battery swapping technology offers the best alternative to slow charging and help drivers to make optimum use of the operational hours. Post-COVID-19: India’s Financial Uncertainty Will Make RE Investors Selective About Projects COVID-19 has impacted the market to such an extent that the market condi- tions seem gloomy and uncertain in the near future. Hence, investors are expected to be very selective about investing in renewable energy projects ascertaining the developer’s ability and strength, and the cost of debt procure- ment. This can prove to be a challenge in securing debt capital in the near term, says GlobalData. \ The distribution companies (DISCOMS) are focusing on maintaining the liquidi- ty. Delays in payments have impacted their immediate working capital. The under-construction renewable energy projects bear the chance of seeing de- layed financial closures. This calls out for structural reforms in the electricity sector without which the financial condi - tion of the distribution companies would deteriorate. The booming Indian renewable (RE) sector has been hit badly by COVID-19. As per GlobalData’s analysis, the RE sector in India contracted by over 50% in H1 2020 compared to the same peri- od last year. During H1 2019, India saw over 104 financial deals in the RE tech - nologies as compared to just over 50 during H1’2020. Somik Das, Senior Power Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “With the pan - demic in place and the number of rising bad loans in the power sector, public sector banks are opting for a more risk-averse approach where they are particularly lending to more promising projects. The non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), which are more active in this space, are trying to main- tain their liquidity and in turn, would likely be less active in lending for RE projects. “Even with the fragile current invest- ment landscape, the government is making the necessary arrangements to smoothen the funding flow by proposing to remove the limit under priority sec- tor lending to the RE projects, lowering the tariffs and associated costs. These green shoots have been received pos- itively by the industry and help the de- velopers secure larger loans on time. It is expected that this year India will add around 16GW of renewable capacity due to a strong development pipeline, government support and presence of serious developers to disseminate the growth seeds.” 13 energetica INDIA- June_2020