Deepak Kochhar Blog

Monday 26 December 2016

Deepak Kochhar and his goal of powering India with NuPower Renewables!

Deepak Kochhar is also one of the elite Independent Power Producers (IPP) in renewable energy. He is the CEO and founder of NuPower Renewables and has 20 years of experience in the renewal energy sector and financial sector. He also happens to be the husband of ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar.

His education and hobby:

Deepak Kochhar completed graduation from the Harvard Business School in Advancement Management Program (AMP). He also completed Masters from Jamnalan Bajaj Institution of Management Studies, Mumbai (then Bombay) University in Finance.

His key loves playing squash and is a 3 time National Champion. Regarding his lingual skills, he can converse in English and Hindi with complete proficiency.

His contribution to the nation:

This humble man with NuPower Renewables had a dream to eradicate the problems of electrification taking place in the rural areas of India. From 2008, he has constantly been trying to achieve that goal. His hard work has also paid off, and the total energy generation capacity has experienced an increase from 1%-12% in the last 12 years.

Deepak Kochhar with NuPower has taken numerous steps for the betterment of the renewable energy sector. He introduced wind turbines 2.05WV of German technology capable of transforming wind into energy GmbH. Plus renewable energy assets of around 700MW functioning have been initiated in pipeline regions of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh. NuPower has also sold off power grids vide to different power grids vide on a purchase contract for 13-20 years. Plus it also sells power to corporate clients on the basis of long of buying contracts.

In words of the man- “India due to the rapid urbanization will have more number of centers in the urban regions. This will lead to an increase in the more energy generation capacity.” The man also stated that considering the costs of electricity in the urban areas; renewable energy will prove to the best possible solution.

Developments in the renewable energy sector production have also improved from 0.4% in 2002 to 6% in 2005. Also, there have been some improvements in drive train technology and tower structure through the usage of state of the art power electronics. This has added to the cost-effectiveness on an over-all scale.

All this could not have been possible without personalities like Deepak Kochhar and NuPower, undoubtedly the country’s leading IPPs.

Deepak Kochhar stated this is an exciting time in the renewable energy sector. It is contributing to the nation’s security and worldwide climactic changes. Plus this is also preserving the country’s forex in regards to the substitution of coal. He further added that this rapid urbanization would also add more number of urban energy renewable centers making way for more volume of energy generation.

With the passage of time, more transformation is expected as the next target for 2022 is 175GW of solar and wind energy. Deepak Kochhar with NuPower plans to play a pivotal role in bringing about that transformation.

To conclude:

Deepak Kochhar has done quite a lot for the country, but according to him, his work is not done yet. His words embody the famous line from Robert Frost’s poem- “The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep…”

Tuesday 18 October 2016

Deeepak Kochhar's daughter Aarti set to marry beau Aditya

The daughter of Founder & CEO of the NuPower Group Deepak Kochhar, Arti is all set to tie the knot with Aditya Qazi. The wedding will be held on November 27 in Taj Mahal hotel of Mumbai.

Arti and Aditya are currently working in Reliance. The parents of Aditya, Sameer and Radhika Qazi, are considered to be close friends of Ambani family. Also, Chanda Kochhar and Radhika are childhood friends. Arti and Aditya got engaged a few months back.

Though, families of bride and groom are friends from a long time but the couple fell in love in America. Both used to study together in University of Pennysylavia.

After returning from America, both of them joined BCG and Booz & Co and then shifted to Reliance India Limited. For her interest in fashion, Arti chose Reliance Brands while Aditya joined Reliance infocom.

The after wedding celebrations will be held at Hotel Taj land on November 29. Other traditional ceremonies before wedding will be held at Kochhar residence only.

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/chanda-kochhars-daughter-aarti-set-to-marry-beau-aditya/articleshow/45143402.cms

The Kochhar family

The Kochhar family is gearing up for what is being viewed in many circles as the power wedding of 2014. Later this month, Aarti Kochchar, daughter of ICICI Bank's MD & CEO, Chanda Kochhar, will get married in Mumbai.

However, the festivities will most likely clash with another big business family wedding — that of Siddharth Parekh, son of HDFC Ltd chairman Deepak Parekh, in Jodhpur.

Wedding celebrations at the Kochhar residence will begin on November 27, the same da ..

Monday 17 October 2016

NuPower looks to raise $300 million in two tranches

Mumbai: Wind energy producer NuPower Renewables Pvt. Ltd is looking to raise $300 million in two equal portions to develop 1 gigawatt (GW) of capacity over next six years, managing director Deepak Kochhar has said.

NuPower, which has 200MW of wind projects in operation and an additional 500MW in the pipeline, is seeking investments from pension funds in Canada, Australia and the US, which are keen to expand their renewable energy portfolios, Kochhar said. “We are looking at two tranches of $150 million each, which we are quite hopeful on,” he said.

NuPower, which is in early talks with some of the funds, expects to sew up the funds in the next six to eight months. It raised about Rs.300 crore from a renewable energy fund of Singapore-based private equity firm Accion Capital Management Pte Ltd in return for an undisclosed equity stake in 2012. NuPower also borrowed Rs.750 crore from Punjab National Bank in the same year, and subsequently, borrowed funds from Axis Bank Ltd and Central Bank of India.

NuPower initially plans to set up 500MW capacity over the next three years in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. In the following three years, it plans to develop another 500MW.

The company also entered the turbine manufacturing business, using technology from Germany’s Wind to Energy GmbH and recently commissioned a 30MW wind farm in Sangli, Maharashtra with its own turbine. It now wants to focus on power production alone.

Kochhar was a financial services entrepreneur before he founded NuPower in late 2008.
“There are so many businesses that may give a higher return, but here there is some sense of passion. Here you are contributing to energy security for the nation, to global climate change, and there is huge savings in foreign exchange for the country on account of (increased) coal import substitution and improved technology,” said Kochhar. The manufacturing sector consumes 50% of the country’s power. About 100,000MW of wind energy can result in annual savings of $14 billion in foreign exchange on account of lower coal imports of 140 million tonnes, said Kochhar. He also expects inflow of funds to rise for the entire renewable energy sector.

India has a target of installing 100GW of solar power capacity and 60GW of wind power capacity by 2022. Apart from NuPower, Goldman Sachs-backed ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd, Morgan Stanley-owned Continuum Wind Energy Ltd, JP Morgan-backed Leap Green Energy Pvt. Ltd and Welspun Renewables Ltd are the other wind power producers in the country. Suzlon Energy Ltd, Gamesa Wind Turbine Pvt. Ltd, WinWinD, Inox Wind Ltd, ReGen Powertech Pvt. Ltd are the leading wind equipment makers in the country.
Average tariff in the wind energy sector are currently benchmarked at Rs.5 per unit and vary from state to state. Investors are estimated to generate around 16% internal rate of return (IRR).

Wind capacity in the country, which currently stands at 24GW, had seen a decline between 2012 and 2014 because of withdrawal of government benefits such as generation-based incentives.

The capacity growth has, however, seen a rise after the benefits were rolled out again.

India’s wind energy market is expected to grow at an annual average rate of 20% over the next five years, helped by the government’s initiatives, restoration of fiscal incentives, and entry of large investors due to the attractive return on investment, which is at least 14% IRR, according to a 17 December report by Maybank Kim Eng Securities.

“Attractiveness of the wind power market has increased due to the entry of large organized investors and increased efficiencies offered by new turbines,” the report said.

Source => http://www.livemint.com/Industry/d7DHzqlGRg5WPfOG8IqBDM/NuPower-looks-to-raise-300-million-in-two-tranches.html

Friday 14 October 2016

Renewable Energy and Long Term Energy Security of India

In 2005-06 India issued its Integrated Energy Policy with a view to provide a long term strategy for Energy Security. It set up a target of 50% energy from Renewable Energy over long term. The Electricity Act, 2003 provided a backdrop for development of such long term strategic policy.

India has made progress since then for achieving the policy goals. In line with this India has rightfully set an ambitious target of achieving 175 GW installed capacity addition from Renewable energy by 2022. Main contributors will be wind energy & solar energy.

Wind and solar are complementary in nature as one is available in day and other can be harnessed in the evening and night too. Solar can be developed off grid where as wind is developed as grid connected power.

Due to favorable climatic conditions for solar energy, it can be harnessed in many states, however wind energy is available in mostly 7 to 8 western and southern states.

Till now western and southern states have done a commendable job in harnessing wind energy through state level policy with support and help from centre in the form of concessional taxation and GBI. However this effort needs to be augmented with participation of all the states in order to fulfill long term strategic objective of energy security. However for this we need to think of creating some regulatory mechanism as it will be difficult to obtain participation of non windy states in the current scenario. One such mechanism is setting up RPO targets for each state, which is being done by the centre. But we need to go beyond and set up a mechanism to enable investment in wind energy generation and its consumption by non wind states discoms.

Wind energy cost differs from state to state depending on wind velocity.

One idea can be to set up a Central Wind Power Trading Company (Central Wind PTC) which can buy wind power from generators in windy state and distribute it to discoms in non windy states in the ratio of power consumed by them from all sources of energy. However the Central Wind PTC will need some legal back up to collect its dues on time from state discoms. And also there need to be some legal back up to enforce state discom to buy power from Central Wind PTC.

The tariff for power purchased & distributed by Central Wind PTC can be decided by CERC to ensure no tariff distortions as wind power cost will differ from state to state depending on wind velocity. Since wind power gets single part tariff and any power not evacuated is direct loss to wind Project Company, a tariff set up by CERC will provide a fair play, as CERC can handle these matters when they arise. This will also attract investment in the sector and provide visibility to bankers to provide debt for the projects.

“A centralized mechanism for power purchase ensuring timely payment to wind generators will go a long way for wind power IPPs” says Deepak Kochhar, founder & CEO of NuPower Renewables.