TURNING GREEN GOALS INTO GAINS

The commercial and industrial segmentis looking lucrative for energy companies and investors alike

- SHREYA JAI

H yderabad-based Fourth Partner Energy (4PE) was started by three friends in 2010 with 3 crore angel funding. The name mirrored their business idea - the fourth partner is the customer for whom 4PE would develop tailor-made green energy solutions. A major chunk of their customer base turned out to be the energy-guzzling commercial and industrial (C&I) sectors-retailers, carmakers, pharma companies, and manufacturing units.

4PE started out as a "distributed green energy supplier" at a time when solar power was just catching on in India with grid connected projects making headlines with their large size and record low tariffs. Vivek Subramanian, co-founder of 4PE, told this writer in 2014: "We are convinced the distributed power segment will see explosive growth over the next few years." Last month, 4PE raised $275 million, or roughly 20 trillion, from three marquees World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC), Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Germany-headquartered DEGmaking it one of the priciest equity deals in the Indian renewable energy (RE) sector.

Announcing the deal in Delhi recently, Subramaniam said they have a portfolio of 1.5 gigawatt (Gw) and are aiming to build a 3.5 Gw capacity by 2026-27. "The investment strategy and variety of funding instruments that these large fund houses have to offer will bolster our growth plans. We would be collaborating with these investors on innovative financing tools, invest in more energy technologies and enter new geographical territories," he said.

Greening the fossil fuel guzzlers