By RIA Novosti
Moscow : HydroOGK, the world’s second-largest hydropower generating company, may invest $30 billion to build hydropower plants in India, said Sergei Pavlenko, a senior manager of the Russian firm.
“The Indian government has approved a programme of commissioning new generating facilities with a capacity of 50 GW within 15 years,” he said. “We are considering involvement in some of these projects, in particular in the construction of hydropower plants in northern India near the Himalayas.
“We will name the projects in which we will participate within the next few months,” Pavlenko said, adding that HydroOGK would work jointly with Indian energy company Sun Group.
The two companies signed a memorandum of cooperation during the international economic forum in St Petersburg this summer.
Pavlenko said that Power Machines, the largest Russian manufacturer of power industry equipment, and other companies, including foreign ones, could produce equipment for the Indian plants.
Vasily Zubakin, deputy chairman of HydroOGK, said: “HydroOGK will be not so much an investor, as a full-fledged partner in the Indian projects.” He added that an inter-governmental agreement should be signed to implement them.
Vyacheslav Sinyugin, head of HydroOGK, had earlier said that this year the parties should set up a management company on a parity basis to prepare construction plans.
The two Russian companies involved in power generation projects abroad now are Technopromexport, which builds thermal power plants, and Atomstroyexport, which builds nuclear power plants under turnkey conditions.
India’s Sun Group is implementing joint projects with independent Russian natural gas producer Itera. Their joint venture is taking part in the construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal in Gujarat.
HydroOGK is a wholly owned subsidiary of Russian electricity monopoly RAO UES.