WCA July 2018

India Insight

UK joins solar alliance The UK government has announced its membership of the India-led International Solar Alliance (ISA). The UK will provide expertise, and support the ISA in developing solar water pump projects and help in increasing the number of mini grids supplying power to remote areas, which cannot be reached by the main electricity grid. Speaking at an event held at the London Stock Exchange as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM), the UK’s international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, said: “The signing of this treaty is a momentous occasion for the UK, and demonstrates our continued commitment to providing the very best of British expertise to the renewable energy sector. “With the UK joining the International Solar Alliance, the lives of almost a billion of the world’s poorest people, across the Commonwealth and beyond, will be changed for the better.” Overall, the ISA aims to deploy over 1,000 GW of solar energy, via the mobilisation of over $1 trillion, by 2030. International Solar Alliance – India Website : www.isolaralliance.org Funding India power projects Working together under the name EverSource Capital, the UK-based renewable energy developer Lightsource and Indian private equity investor Everstone will target contracted power, distribution infrastructure and energy services in India via the Green Growth Equity Fund (GGEF). Acting as co-anchors, the UK government and India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) have each committed $170 million to the GGEF. The GGEF aims to raise funds from international institutional investors to fund projects in renewable energy, clean transportation, and other emerging technologies and sectors in India. This will underpin India’s efforts towards its 2022 renewable energy target of 175 GW. Everstone Capital – India Website : www.everstonecapital.com Italian acquisition for steelmaker India’s JSW Steel has acquired Aferpi, an Italian steelmaker. The company’s plant consists of a rail mill, a bar mill and a wire rod mill, and also has a captive port and steel ball mill. Aferpi specialises in producing long steel products such as rails, wire rods and hot rolled bars, and supplies high-speed rails to major railway networks in Europe. JSW Steel sees the acquisition of the steelmaker as an opportunity to expand its product range and gain a

presence in the European steel market. Aferpi’s own integrated port will help integrate JSW Steel’s domestic operations with the company. The long-term aim of JSW Steel is to establish a scrap/DRI-based electric arc furnace to make Aferpi a fully integrated steel plant. JSW Steel owns a plate mill in the USA and iron ore mines in Chile, and currently has a crude steel capacity of 18 million tonnes per year. The company aims to expand its capacity to 23 million tonnes by 2020. JSW Steel – India Website : www.jsw.in Mumbai sea link project A joint venture between Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) and Astaldi SpA of Italy has won the engineering, procurement and construction contract to construct the Versova-Bandra sea link, the second sea link in Mumbai. “The letter of award (LoA) for the project has been issued by Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). RInfra-Astaldi JV had emerged the most competitive bidder,” RInfra said in a statement. RInfra added that the other bidders were two joint ventures – L&T-Samsung JV, and Hyundai Development Company-ITD JV. The 17.17km-long Versova-Bandra project will be three times the length of the existing Bandra-Worli sea link. The project is scheduled to be commissioned in 60 months. Reliance Infrastructure – India Website : www.rinfra.com Pakistan power progress The prime minister of Pakistan, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, was present at an agreement signing between Power Division of Pakistan and State Grid Corporation of China, for the construction of an 878km 600 kV HVDC bi-pole transmission line between Matiari and Lahore. The agreement will include two converter stations with AC switching stations at Matiari and Lahore; two electrode stations at both Matiari and Lahore; and three repeater stations along the route. The HVDC transmission line will form part of the Pakistan China Economic Corridor (CPEC) agreement, signed in 2015 between NTDC and State Grid Corporation of China. The project is first of its kind in Pakistan and also the first to be executed under the government of Pakistan’s Transmission Policy 2015 on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis. The project has a completion time of 27 months, with a commercial operation date (COD) fixed at 1 st March 2021. Power Division of Pakistan – Pakistan Website : www.mowp.gov.pk

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