Energetica India nº91 July August 2020

Animesh Damani Partner, Artha Energy Resources “We are not far behind China if we focus on building the ecosystem required for battery manufacturing today. We could attain global leadership in the segment.” E nergetica I ndia : Shed some light on Ar- tha Energy and its journey in the clean energy space? A nimesh D amani : Artha Energy had its roots in the United States, where my brother Anirudh Damani had run a start- up that traded short and medium pow- er contracts with C&I clients -- what we term Open Access in India. Initially, my brother had started -as a door-to-door sales representative and worked his way up to partner and owning a sizeable por- tion of the company. In 2011, both of us came back from the US to India and wanted to continue the energy journey in India. Renewable en- ergy was picking up at the time, and we started as greenfield developers for a large North-American based fund in hy- dro, solar, and biomass. We continued to develop a sizeable portfolio for many investors in solar and wind. On the other hand, the experience of working in the Indian power market was very different from the US. The data was difficult to obtain at the time, and the regulatory environment was contin- ually evolving. We set out on a mission to capture data on power generation, consumption, and pricing. After cross- ing many hurdles, we eventually devel- oped a database that houses granular level data on the power generation and consumption patterns in the country. This database feeds our consultancy services in M&A and current greenfield & brownfield development activities. We are currently in the process of setting up a platform for investment in solar and wind projects. Energetica India catches up with Animesh Damani, Partner at Artha Energy Resources to get his expert insights on various emerging topics in the power sector including financial advice, opportunities for India, policy hurdles, his company’s future plans etc. 14 energetica INDIA- July-Aug_2020 INTERVIEW