Indian Oil, NTPC Form JV For 650 MW RE

India’s largest power producer state owned NTPC and Indian Oil Corporation Limited have formally inked a joint venture company recently, mandating the former to produce round-the-clock 650 MW renewable energy required by the upcoming projects of the refineries in Indian Oil.

Released by the companies, a statement reads that the JV was necessitated by a demand of 650 MW power in the refineries plants of Indian Oil till December 2024.

NTPC CMD Gurdeep Singh has been quoted as saying, “The joint venture between the two energy majors for a common purpose is a classic example of teamwork and collaboration for others to follow.”

Echoing a similar sentiment, Indian Oil chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya said, “It is indeed a powerful statement, as two fossil fuel giants of the country – Indian Oil & NTPC join hands for changing their path towards green energy. The two Maharatna PSUs can now leverage their capabilities to push forward the green growth agenda.”

NTPC is working towards building a greener energy portfolio. Towards this end, it has made a few significant capacities of Renewable Energy (RE) Sources. In a decade’s time, the state-owned company is looking to add 60GW capacity through RE sources which make up almost 45% of its overall power generation capacity. It has also hived off a special firm, NTPC Green Energy Limited to house its renewable assets, and expects to find a strategic investor or take the firm public separately in FY 23.

In May this year, power utility NTPC Limited had invited bids for the comprehensive Operation and Maintenance (O&M) of 5 blocks (50*5) of its 250 MWp Mandsaur solar PV plant for three years.

NTPC’s commissioned capacity stands at 1769.68 MW of RE projects under own capacity addition. NTPC serves as an intermediary procurer where it procures power from the developers and sells to DISCOMs with a trading margin. 4783 MW of RE projects have been commissioned under the developer mode so far.

NTPC is the clear choice for energy sector PSU’s for entering the renewable energy business.  In 2021, NTPC Ltd. and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) had also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 21st May 2020 at Delhi to set up a Joint Venture Company for Renewable Energy business. Similarly, it has a JV with GAIL for ammonia and green hydrogen, besides a recent one with privately sector GACL for renewable energy.

Earlier this month, NTPC Renewable Energy had also signed an MOU with the Rajasthan government for 10 GW of solar parks in the state.