Renewables to constitute 80 percent of our capacity, says Torrent Power's Jinal Mehta

Jinal Mehta, vice chairman and managing director of Torrent Power

Ahmedabad-based Torrent Power plans to increase its renewable capacity to 10 GW by 2030 through a mixed model of solar, wind and energy storage systems, the company's vice chairperson and managing director Jinal Mehta told Moneycontrol.

"At Torrent, we are present across thermal generation and renewable generation. Our ambition is to significantly scale up our renewable energy portfolio. At this point, renewable is around 30 percent of our overall existing generation capacity. Going forward 80 percent of what we set up will likely be renewable energy and storage solutions," Mehta said.

Mehta won the "Next-Gen Leader Award" at Moneycontrol's India Family Business Awards 2023 held in New Delhi on December 3.

Apart from 10 GW, the company would also add 5 GW of storage in the form of pumped hydro storage plants, he said.

The company has an aggregate installed generation capacity of 4,580 MW —2,730 MW of gas-based capacity, 1,488 MW renewable and 362 MW of coal-based capacity.

Renewable projects of 2,979 MW are under development. Total generation capacity, including projects under development, is 7,559 MW.

For the September quarter, Torrent Power reported an 8.6 percent year-on-year decline in net profit at Rs 481 crore. The drop was attributed to a reduced contribution from thermal generation, largely due to lower merchant sales, including LNG, and decreased electricity demand driven by prolonged monsoon conditions.

The company's revenue, however, rose 3.1 percent to Rs 7,175.8 crore from the year- ago period.

Torrent Power, a Rs 27,183-crore integrated power utility of the Torrent Group, is one of the largest companies in the country’s power sector with presence across the entire power value chain – generation, transmission and distribution.