The country's largest private sector power generation firm Tata Power Company through its arm Tata Power International Pte Ltd has signed an agreement with Clean Energy Invest AS, a part of Norwegian hydro power company Clean Energy Group and IFC InfraVentures, a fund created by IFC, to develop hydro projects in Georgia. The power projects will be developed to supply electricity primarily to Turkey.
Tata Power and Clean Energy will hold 40 per cent stake each in the project and remaining 20 per cent will be held by IFC InfraVentures, as per a stock market disclosure. The overall project would involve investment of $700 million.
The hydro projects with capacity of around 400 MW will be developed in three phases. The first phase would be of 185 MW and is expected to be completed before mid-2016.
"Georgia is a great country to work in and Turkey is a fast evolving energy market in Europe. This relationship with Clean Energy and IFC InfraVentures puts us on a strong footing to take advantage of the considerable potential of this market," said Anil Sardana, MD of Tata Power. The joint venture will boost the company’s clean energy portfolio.
Clean Energy Group focuses on developing greenfield projects.
IFC InfraVentures is an early stage project developer launched by IFC, a member of the World Bank Group. It was created in 2008 to support and develop private and public-private partnership infrastructure projects in poor countries.
Tata Power, a part of Tata Group, has currently a hydro generation capacity of around 450 MW in Maharashtra that feeds clean energy to Mumbai. It has partnered with several companies to increase its portfolio in hydro power generations which include its collaboration with Norway-based SN Power, a JV consortium for 'Dugar Hydro Electric Project' in Chenab Valley in Himachal Pradesh, and a JV with the government of Bhutan under which it is implementing a 114 MW project from Dagachhu Hydro project with Druk Green Power Company.