Here's how Adani Green Energy, under Vneet S. Jaain’s leadership, is making clean energy affordable

Vneet S. Jaain has an interesting take on the word “impossible”. To the Managing Director of Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL), the word simply means “I’m possible”. To the 53-year-old, the refusal to take calculated risks in favour of a safe path translates to succumbing to failure by default. This mindset inspires his daily routine at work, and it has guided him to a successful career over the past two decades.

For instance, after almost one and a half decades with the Delhi-based Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL), Jaain chose to face fresh challenges, both geographically and professionally, by joining the Adani Group in Ahmedabad in the mid-2000s. “I was in my comfort zone. I was working very closely with the late O.P. Jindal and his sons. I was actually enjoying more authority because of my association with the family,” explains Jaain. At JSPL, he was exposed to all departments—mining, steel making, rolling mills, power, etc. But he wanted to face new challenges.

Living by his mantra, Jaain packed his bags and left for Ahmedabad when the opportunity arose with the Adani Group. The Jindal Group was well known those days, while the Adani Group was emerging as a new player in the trading, agribusiness, and ports sectors. Not many professionals would have taken the risk of leaving a stable job in a metropolis to shift base to the sleepy city of Ahmedabad to join an emerging player.

In Ahmedabad, Jaain started his innings in the newly set up thermal power vertical. “I was the fourth or fifth employee of the energy vertical,” recalls Jaain, who joined as Vice President in 2006. He was quickly elevated to the post of CEO at Adani Power Ltd; this was followed by a stint as CEO of Adani Transmission Ltd (now called Adani Energy Solutions Ltd). Later, he took over as CEO of Adani Infra (India) Ltd, before moving to AGEL in 2015 as a Non-executive Director.

Under Jaain’s leadership, AGEL has grown to become one of the largest renewable energy firms in India, with a current wind and solar project portfolio of 20.80 GW. AGEL’s operating portfolio is 8.47 GW, the largest in India. The firm has also sewed up long-term power purchase agreements with central and state governments, as well as with government-backed enterprises. Jaain, the winner in the Clean Energy category of the BT-PwC India’s Best CEOs ranking this year, says his contribution is minimal, as the Adani ecosystem contributed to the success of the green energy business. “I am executing my leader Gautam Adani’s vision,” he says modestly.

Jaain has led many first-of-its-kind projects in the country, driven by his deep technical understanding and sector focus. The Adani Group has completed a number of significant energy projects under his leadership, including the biggest solar plant in the world at a single site, at Kamuthi, in Tamil Nadu. The facility covers 2,500 acres, or about 950 Olympic-sized football fields. The 650-MW facility was completed in a record eight months, with 8,500 people toiling day and night. “It gave us a big boost and confidence in the group. We can execute large-scale projects while managing all the contingencies and challenges,” says Jaain. The Kamuthi plant was completed in 2016.

In 2022, AGEL commissioned a 390-MW wind-solar hybrid power plant in Rajasthan, the first such plant in India. In March 2023, AGEL’s fourth wind-solar hybrid power plant with a capacity of 700 MW became fully operational in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer. With this, AGEL’s operating wind-solar hybrid portfolio reached 2,140 MW, the largest wind-solar hybrid cluster in the world.

“At present, we have the most ambitious renewable projects, not only for Adani Group but also for India and the world,” says Jaain, a mechanical engineer by training.

The company also has plans to develop 30 GW of renewable energy capacity at Khavda in Gujarat, which will be operational over the next five years. Khavda, located in the Kutch district of Gujarat, is a promising location for wind and solar energy projects. When completed, the Khavda renewable energy park will be the largest such installation in the world. “We have already operationalised 551 MW of solar capacity in Khavda by supplying power to the national grid,” adds Jaain.

While initially appointed as MD & CEO in July 2020 for a period of five years, Jaain relinquished the CEO’s role at AGEL in May 2023, with Amit Singh stepping in as the new CEO. Under the leadership of these two, AGEL is aiming to deliver 45 GW of power by 2030. The company is focussed on delivering affordable power. “We have developed the in-house capabilities to execute large-scale projects, which brings economies of scale,” says Jaain.

The company is also supporting the indigenous supply chain for equipment used in renewable energy (RE). AGEL is leveraging group synergy in RE equipment manufacturing to accelerate the clean energy transition. For example, Adani Wind, the wind manufacturing division of Adani New Industries Limited (ANIL), has an integrated manufacturing ecosystem for wind turbine generators (WTG) with a manufacturing capacity of 1.5 GW, which produces India’s largest onshore WTG of 5.2 MW. Adani Wind is focussed on developing technologically advanced next-generation turbines with the objective of making India the global manufacturing hub for renewable equipment.

“They are supplying 100% of the turbines to AGEL. This gives us a cost advantage,” says Jaain. Adani Wind is focussed on developing technologically advanced next-generation turbines with the objective of making India the global manufacturing hub for renewable equipment.

Then there’s Adani Solar, which is creating a manufacturing line to produce silicon ingots exclusively for solar wafers, cells, and modules. The group is also developing storage solutions for seamless connectivity with the electricity grid. It plans to invest Rs 24,500 crore in three pump storage projects in Tamil Nadu, with a combined capacity of 4.9 GW. It has also lined up investments of more than Rs 5,000 crore in pump storage projects in Telangana with a capacity of 1.35 GW. The localistion strategy with backward integration to manufacture equipment for renewable energy is helping put a check on costs, which will result in affordable power, say experts.

AGEL has continued to invest in innovative technologies to optimise energy generation while minimising generating costs. Its newly operationalised solar-wind hybrid portfolio of 2,140 MW deploys cutting-edge bifacial solar photovoltaic modules and horizontal single-axis tracking (HSAT) technology to extract maximum energy from the sun. “Machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques are also helping to reduce costs. Predictive maintenance inputs are provided via a cloud-based analytics platform that allows for the remote administration of all locations from a single place, reducing downtime,” Jaain explains. There is also centralised surveillance, which allows the company to monitor the functioning of a solar plant from anywhere. More particularly, the Energy Network Operation Center (ENOC), the first of its kind in the world, enables understanding of which modules are running below ideal levels, thereby allowing for informed remedial action. This responsiveness has resulted in higher uptime, increased energy throughput and more profitability.

With equity and debt capital raised, the company has put in place the capital management framework for achieving the targeted 45-GW capacity by 2030. The company recently issued equity share warrants to the promoters for a total investment of Rs 9,350 crore. In January, it announced that it had completed the funding of a $750-million Holdco bond, which was due in September 2024. This redemption will result in deleveraging AGEL by way of equity proceeds. Ventura Securities, in its latest report, says that AGEL’s debt profile is still relatively healthy compared to other renewable energy companies in India. “The company’s interest coverage ratio is currently at 2.7 times. Additionally, Adani Green’s debt is mostly long-term, which means that it has a relatively stable repayment schedule,” it said in its January report.

For a man who believes that anything can be achieved, Jaain has ample support from Adani Group Founder and Chairman Gautam Adani, who is equally ambitious and has grand plans for India. That’s what makes AGEL the Indian solution for clean energy on a global scale.

@anandadhikari