Exclusive | French energy giant Engie to bring its GEMS unit to India: CCO Naresh Baluja

Naresh Baluja, Chief Commercial Officer (Renewables), Engie India.

Engie is planning to bring its Global Energy Management and Sales (GEMS) entity to India sometime in 2024, the chief commercial officer (renewables) of the French energy company’s India arm Naresh Baluja told Moneycontrol.

Engie is one of the largest foreign investors in India’s solar power sector. Its India office, Engie India, was incorporated in 2014 and is present in Delhi and Pune. The group currently has a global renewable energy business of about 42 gigawatts (GW) and plans to increase it to 80 GW by 2030.

In India the company has been a slow starter with a current renewables capacity of about 1.7 GW. By 2030, it plans to increase its India renewables portfolio to 5.5-6 GW.

When asked about the company’s diversification plans, Baluja said the group is branching out from a pure utility player to catering to the commercial and industrial sector. “We are planning to have one of our companies, Engie GEMS, enter India in 2024. GEMS is an end-to-end one-stop solution for energy trading, for carbon offsets, ammonia, green hydrogen, etc. It will be our decarbonisation partner. We are working closely to curate products and services for Indian customers,” he said in an interview to Moneycontrol.

Explaining further, he said the two companies of the parent Engie group will not just set up renewable energy projects but also help with decarbonisation solutions such as green steel, alternative fuels, bio methane or green hydrogen as storage.

Engie’s India energy transition business to be nearly 15% global targets by 2030

The company is also looking at the new energy segment such as green hydrogen and green ammonia, other than smart meters, battery storage, battery swapping and electric mobility.

“We are bullish about India primarily because the Indian market gives you the scale, but at the same time you can be selective. You can choose the options that you want to participate in. Every year, as per the Indian government’s mandate, now 50 GW of auctions will be happening. So India gives us ample options to pick and choose, and yet achieve our targets. This is the strategy that has been approved globally by our group as well, that we will be very selective, and yet achieve our targeted scale,” Baluja said.

Actively seeking investment opportunities and partnerships

Earlier this year, Engie India hired Kotak Investment Banking to scout for a joint venture partner to build nearly 3 GW of solar power capacity here. It aims to raise about $300 million in equity through this, Baluja said.

“Yes, we appointed an investment bank, did a lot of market sounding, the discussions with a few partners are still on. Of course, I cannot name those partners yet. But we have pretty much aligned ourselves on the kind of path that we want to tread on, in terms of the structure that we want to look at from a partnership perspective. This is what I can divulge at this stage,” he said.

When asked about the decided structure or path for seeking such a partnership, Baluja said, “The path is that we want to retain the development bit of it. We want to retain the majority stake, because we are a strategic industrial player and not a financial investor. We have end-to-end capabilities in India—development, construction, operations, and so on. We want to have control over what matters the most, and then maybe flip it over to an InvIT (infrastructure investment trust) or an operational partner.”