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French MNC EDF Upbeat On India Across Renewables, Nuclear, T&D Sectors

To implement 5 million smart meter projects

French power multinational EDF (Électricité de France) is upbeat on India across several areas including renewables, nuclear power, transmission and distribution systems, and smart grids.

The company, which had bagged a mega project to deploy five million smart meters in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, has completed pilot projects and is stepping up efforts to deploy them.

Marianne Laigneau, Group Senior Executive Vice-President In-Charge of International Division, said, “EDF has been awarded the biggest ever contract in India by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), where it has to design, install and integrate a network of 5 million smart metres across India staring with Andhra Padesh and Bihar. With this project, EDF is now active in India in all the areas that are key for reducing the country’s carbon dioxide emissions through low carbon electricity generation of nuclear and renewable, smart grids and intelligent public lighting.”

During her interaction with BusinessLine, Marianne said, “India is a key country for EDF. We want to be part of the Indian Energy Transition Programme. We have won a very competitive and very innovative contract, which is one of the two five million contracts.”

Service, data support

“We are providing a global service right from design of data support, we control and manage systems of the process. Since we are installing these meters in two Indian States, it is challenging. The smart meter integration is good news for Discoms as they can cut down on commercial losses,” she explained.

EDF has already installed 20 million smart meters in France out of a programme of 35 million metres. The potential for smart metres in India is huge — possibly projected to be 300 million metres, she said.

“We are part of the Jaitapur project which is going to be the largest nuclear plant in the world and is now under negotiation with NPC. This, along with the smart meters, are our two major initiatives. Apart from this, EDF has 1.1 gigawatt of wind and solar capacity in renewables either in operation, construction or in development. This is a mix of wind and solar projects. We recently won tenders in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh,” she said.

Various segments

“In India we are present for more than 25 years. Our ambition is to grow renewables, to finish negotiation on the nuclear project and to grow by deploying smart metres, smart grids, batteries and storage. We will be active partner for India in all the segments of the value chain,” Marianne said.

“We have invested €1.2 billion in renewables and made some acquisitions. If we move up to two GWs in four to five years we will be a major player in the renewable energy market in India,” she said.

Source : The Hindu Business Line 

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