IndiGrid teams with British, Norwegian funds on $300m Indian battery, grid transmission portfolio

IndiGrid, India’s first and largest listed power-sector infrastructure investment trust announced, on Nov. 13, 2024, that it has deepened its partnership with BII, the United Kingdom’s development finance institution and impact investor, and the Norwegian Climate Investment Fund, managed by Norfund, to form a new platform, EnerGrid. The platform will focus on bidding and developing greenfield electricity transmission and standalone battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in India.

The latest estimates released by the Central Electricity Authority indicate India will require an additional 170,000 km of electricity transmission lines and 47 GW of BESS projects through 2032 to facilitate evacuation of its growing generation capacity.

IndiGrid had previously announced, during the 2024/25 fiscal year, the first phase of the partnership, under which BII and Norfund (through KNI India AS, Norfund’s joint venture with KLP, Norway’s largest pension company) invested in three of IndiGrid’s greenfield transmission projects.

With the EnerGrid platform, IndiGrid, BII, and Norfund, alongside KNI India AS, have committed around $300 million. This capital will enable EnerGrid to target future projects worth around $1.2 billion. After commercial operation starts, those projects will be fully acquired by IndiGrid at a pre-agreed price.

“This will be a symbiotic partnership where IndiGrid will lend its pole position in, and understanding of the nuanced Indian energy sector, and BII and Norfund will provide access to capital from global development finance institutions and the Norwegian private pension fund,” said IndiGrid.

Harsh Shah, chief executive officer and director of IndiGrid, said the partnership will ensure that while IndiGrid continues to look for brownfield projects to acquire, it can also meaningfully create an under-construction growth pipeline.

From pv magazine India.