Genus Power Infrastructures Ltd will be playing a dual role of both service provider and equipment supplier in the Rs.3-trillion revamped distribution sector scheme, recently cleared by the Union Cabinet.
In a recent investor conference, the senior management of Genus said that the company would play the role of the Advanced Metering Infrastructure Service Provider (AMISP) and also its usual role of a smart meter supplier.
The Rs.3.04-trillion revamped distribution scheme has a generous component of around Rs.1.50 trillion for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), mainly comprising smart meters.
The management of Genus expressed its satisfaction over the scheme on several counts. The fact that state governments have been allowed to fine-tune the standard bidding documents (SBD) was a welcome step. Also, different amount of subsidy and incentives have been envisaged for general-category states and special category states. There is also scope for additional incentive if the smart meter installation is done by the targeted date of December 2023.
Genus expects that by end of October 2021, state government utilities will start submitting their proposals to the Union power ministry, which will kick-start the scheme implementation.
The scheme has been structured in such a way that there would be absolutely no investment from the state power utilities, or even from the electricity consumers. The entire amount will be invested by the AMISP.
The returns to the AMISP will be in the form of rentals paid by state government utilities for the smart meters installed. The rent will be calculated on a per-meter, per-month basis. This rental amount will be backed by sovereign guarantee. This would also make raising of funds easier for the AMISP.
Though utilities themselves will be paying rentals to the AMISP, this would be generated from the savings arising from the use of smart meters. Genus expects that payback under this rental model will take place from 6 to 10 years, depending on the tender specification.
The Genus management felt that the nationwide installation of some 2.5 million smart meters, over the past 2-3 years, has resulted in significant improvement in the financial health of state government discoms.
Also Read:Installed Energy Meter Base Of Genus Power Reaches 65 Million
Overall business opportunity
On another matter, Genus Power expects its current opportunity size to be in the region of Rs.10,000 crore. These represent “live” tenders for energy meters across all categories – smart meters on OPEX model, smart meters on CAPEX model, conventional meters, etc. Over the past 2-3 months, Genus has participated in tenders worth around Rs.3,000 crore whose outcome will be known in the next 3-4 months. The remaining Rs.7,000 crore worth of tenders are expected to come for bidding in the next 2-3 months, Genus said. The Genus management also added that no major energy meter tenders by government utilities were finalized during the first quarter of FY22.
Note: This story is based on a recent investor conference by Genus Power Infrastructure Ltd, the transcript of which was filed on stock exchanges. The company’s management was represented by Kailash Agarwal, Vice Chairman and Jitendra Agarwal, Joint Managing Director.
Featured photograph shows a manufacturing facility of Genus Power Infrastructures Ltd.
