Industrial Automation Magazine India

AMP Capital establishes energy transmission platform in India with Sterlite Power

Published on : Wednesday 30-12-2020

Both invest USD 150 Million each in the development of four transmission projects to provide the critical infrastructure required for evacuating power.

Mumbai, December 29, 2020: Global investment manager AMP Capital has established a 50/50 partnership with Sterlite Power Transmission Limited (Sterlite Power) for the development of energy transmission projects in India. This marks the first investment in India for AMP Capital’s global infrastructure equity strategy.

AMP Capital and Sterlite Power will each invest an initial amount of approximately USD 150 million in the development of four transmission projects, and have put in place debt financing, which represents a total capital outlay of around USD 1 billion. These projects have a circuit length of nearly 1800 kilometres of transmission lines across the Western, Southern and North Eastern regions of India. They will provide the critical infrastructure required for evacuating power from multiple renewable energy generation projects and will strengthen the power delivery infrastructure in the country.

The partners may in the future contribute further capital for new inter-state transmission projects which are expected to be tendered by the government of India. Therefore, the partnership has the potential to reach an overall investment size of USD 500 million.

Transmission infrastructure has underpinned the rapid growth seen in the generation capacity of India over the last decade. This growth has been led by renewable energy, where India is rapidly becoming recognised as a global leader, having surpassed its ambitious Paris Agreement targets with 38% of generation capacity currently from clean energy. The Indian power market still has huge potential for expansion, with low relative per capita power consumption in the country. Due to years of underinvestment in transmission capacity there is significant demand for investment, and the Indian government has been actively promoting the participation of the private sector in transmission line development through the continued implementation of supportive regulatory reforms.