USAID Partnership to Advance Clean Energy – Deployment Technical Assistance (PACE-D TA) Program organized a webinar in collaboration with AEEE on “Opportunities for financing ESCO projects” on Friday, February 13, 2015.
Speakers:
Dr. Bhaskar Natrajan, Deputy Chief of Party – Energy Efficiency, PACE-D TA Program
Mr. Arvind MT, Director, Amplebit Energy
The webinar provided the following insights:
- Overview of the ESCO market and the barriers, challenges in the field (Dr. Bhaskar Natrajan)
- Provisions have been made under the EC ACT 2001 to undertake large EE projects in the various segments
- However, the number of projects have been very few and ESCO business has not taken off as it was expected
- The ESCO business has been around for more than a decade now but the challenges in scaling up remain
- The emphasis should be on B2B meetings with ESCOS and Clients to handhold them and secure energy performance contract
- More financial instruments will help securing EE loans from FIs leading to more projects getting undertaken
Insights on the technical issues relating to EPC projects usually faced by a number of ESCOs (Mr. Arvind MT)
There is a high ‘risk’ perception among FIs due to the unfamiliar technical know-how of projects
M&V systems with remote monitoring should be enforced for all EE projects
Questions raised by SIDBI and a few ESCOS and were as follows:
What is the size of projects for which ESCOs look for EE loans?
How does one securitize loans for projects to the tune of 100Cr?
Key Comment:
ESCOs need to initially take up EPC projects to achieve comfortable levels with FIs and Banks
To access the presentation:
Opportunities for financing ESCO projects, Mr. Arvind MT, 13 February 2015
