Empowering for a Green Future
Dear Stakeholders,
It gives me immense pleasure to write to you after a record year of growth across our
businesses, which speaks volumes about our solid financial health and operational
excellence. As India takes confident strides to become world's third largest economy in
the next few years and a developed nation by 2047, it is imperative that decarbonisation
and sustainable growth remains as one of the key enablers of this journey for a green
future.
We at Tata Power aspire to play a pivotal role in addressing the growing energy needs
of the country and securing its energy stability by not just being a reliable partner, but
also by providing innovative, low-carbon and sustainable energy solutions. This is
reflected in our strategic roadmap to phase-out all coal-based generation and become
carbon net zero before 2045. We have adopted a three-pronged strategy comprising
technology, business model and people, in collaboration with our customers and partners.
Energy security in a volatile world
Before reviewing Tata Power's performance during the financial year gone by, it's
important to set the context. As the global economy was rebounding from the pandemic-
induced distress, the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022 put a
spanner on it, making energy security as one of the foremost concerns for policymakers and
industry leaders worldwide. The US and its allies imposed economic sanctions on Russia and
as a result, Europe stared at an unprecedented energy crisis, given its dependence on
Russian oil and gas. The world stood defragmented, with no near-term solutions in sight
amid stagnation fears and historically high inflation levels.
Although a milder winter in Europe and easing energy and commodity price inflation
helped thwart an impending crisis, the external environment remained extremely volatile.
This situation strengthened the case further to accelerate investments in clean energy.
Despite the persistent geopolitical challenges, climate commitments globally continued to
gain traction, with renewables attracting investments of $ 495 billion (up 17% y-o-y), of
a total of $ 1.11 trillion flowing into low-carbon energy solutions in 2022. This year
also witnessed a significant focus towards building secure and resilient supply chains for
materials crucial to the energy transition as evident from the policy packages announced
under United States' Inflation Reduction Act and REPowerEU as also the Performance Linked
Incentive (PLI) in our country.
India leads the way
Back home, India demonstrated exceptional resilience amid the global headwinds to
remain the fastest growing major economy, albeit at a lower than previously forecasted
rate of 6.8% in FY23. Amidst the backdrop of the ongoing geo-political tensions and energy
crisis, India is emerging as a bright spot for the global investors particularly in the
sectors ripe for reforms such as energy, transport and infrastructure.
Power demand surged by ~10% to 1,512 billion units (BUs) during the same period. That
said, India too faced its share of challenges with stressed power supply during the peak
demand period, owing to shortage of coal supplies and non-availability of rakes, among
others. However, the shortage didn't snowball into a full-blow crisis due to the
government's proactive and concerted measures.
Meanwhile, the government's target of achieving 500 GW of installed electricity
capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030 remains on track. Renewables accounted for more
than 90% of capacity additions in FY23 and there has been constant push from
policymakers to facilitate clean and green energy transition through progressive and
aggressive policy changes and initiatives, production linked incentive schemes for
promoting domestic manufacturing etc. Further, India's drive towards adopting sustainable
mobility solutions reached an important milestone, with Electric Vehicles (EV) sales
crossing the one-million- unit mark during FY23. EVs accounted for 4.7% (up from 1.7% in
FY22) of overall auto sales, driven by supportive government policies and rapid expansion
in charging infrastructure.
Building awareness, scaling growth and delivering strong financial performance
Aligned with the needs of the country as also our sustained efforts towards the
promotion of clean and green energy, Tata Power partnered with News18 Network to roll out
'SustainableIsAttainable' campaign during India's 75 years of Independence celebration.
The campaign aimed at triggering a new wave of sustainability awareness and adoption in
the country as also to develop deeper conversations around sustainability. It demonstrated
various green products and solutions, highlighting their role in making sustainable
lifestyle 'attainable' for millions of Indians and Tata Power's contribution in enabling
these small yet significant changes for them.
At Tata Power, clean and green energy currently accounts for 37% in our generation mix,
which we aim to increase to 60% over the next five years. In FY23, we earmarked a capex of
over Rs. 7,000 crore in FY23 across generation, transmission and distribution with major
allocation towards augmenting renewable capacity. For FY24, we are looking at a capex of
over Rs. 12,000 crore, to be funded primarily from internal accruals.
We have expanded our renewables business significantly across EPC, utility-scale, group
captive and rooftop, solidifying our leadership further. Currently, we have an order book
in excess of Rs.17,000 crore in the EPC business. Our solar rooftop and group captive
business delivered multi-fold growth, having a combined order book in excess of Rs.1,900
crore.
We believe that the Rs.4,000 crore capital infusion into our renewables business by the
external investors - BlackRock and Mubadala will fuel the next level of growth. Our
greenfield 4 GW manufacturing facility for cells and modules is on track and will get
operational in FY24. Our leadership in the EV charging space was further strengthened with
a network of over 3,700 public and captive EV charging points and over 38,500 home
chargers across 351 cities and towns. We also showcased a wide range of next-generation
charging solutions - EZ Charge - at the Auto Expo 2023.
Our existing businesses of generation, transmission and distribution have performed
exceptionally well. The four Odisha Discoms, acquired over last 2-3 years, exhibited
remarkable performance with better reliability and customer services along with improved
profits and reduced AT&C losses. Moreover, all our Discoms in Mumbai, Delhi and Odisha
were awarded high performance ratings in the 11th Annual Integrated Ratings of
Power Distribution Utilities.
For FY23, we delivered a strong set of numbers, with revenue growing at 32% y-o-y to
Rs.56,033 crore, up from Rs.42,576 crore in FY22. EBITDA and PAT growing at 23% and 77%
respectively to an all-time high of Rs.10,068 crore and Rs.3,810 crore. We continued to
strengthen our balance sheet. Leveraging our robust operating cash flows, we brought down
our net debt to underlying EBITDA to 2.66 from 3.92 and net debt to equity to 1.03 from
1.53.
Partnering for tech adoption
Being mindful of the future energy landscape, we are continuously exploring the
prospects in the emerging clean energy and digital technologies. We are collaborating with
the technology partners and research academia to develop innovative energy solutions
meeting the evolving needs of the consumers and providing them a seamless digital
experience. We joined hands with partners to promote clean and sustainable energy
solutions in the facility management space. Similarly, we have developed partnership for
blockchain-based digital trade finance network thereby making Tata Power the first power
utility in India to implement end-to-end digital Letter of Credit settlement process.
Further, we are making India's power distribution network future ready by accelerating
digitalisation and automation, including implementing hybrid meter technology. This, in
turn, is enhancing grid intelligence and making it resilient and sustainable.
Growth-ready workforce, empowered communities
We recognise the critical role our people play in achieving our strategic objectives.
We are thus building and nurturing a diverse, growth-ready workforce by putting a high
emphasis on learning and development. We have also increased focus on overall health and
safety of our people and partners. ESG screening is carried out for business associates
(suppliers) before engaging with them.
We continue to make a meaningful difference to the communities around our area of
operations. Our focused CSR interventions touched over 37 lakh lives during FY23. Tata
Power and Tata Elxsi joined hands with the Government of India to develop a digital
platform under PayAutention - India's first bridgital autism support network.
Raising the bar on sustainability
At Tata Power, we have established a robust sustainability governance framework. Our
latest materiality assessment exercise conducted during FY23 will be leveraged to further
shape our sustainability goals, aligned with the Tata Group's vision for a greener,
cleaner, more sustainable and equitable future for the planet, Project Aalingana.
Our strong performance on the ESG front was reflected in our rating upgrades: Received
a BBB ESG rating from MSCI while our Sustainalytics ESG Risk Rating improved from 41.2 in
2022 to 40.9 in 2023. We are targeting for inclusion in the S&P Global Emerging Market
List by 2027. We remain on track to our decarbonisation roadmap to achieve carbon net zero
before 2045, as we raise our green and clean sources-based capacity to 100%. Further, we
target to achieve 100% water neutrality, 100% zero waste to landfill and no net impact on
biodiversity before 2030.
At Tata Power, we continue to rediscover ourselves in a volatile world of rapid
changes. Our value system and founder's vision drive us to explore new challenges and
opportunities for growth in a responsible and sustainable manner as true business leaders.
As we continue on this path, let me take this opportunity to thank every stakeholder
and look forward to your continued faith and confidence in us.
Yours sincerely,
DR. PRAVEER SINHA
CEO & MD, The Tata Power Company Limited.