Brookfield bets on grid-ready Indian states for green investment

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. will channel renewable energy investments in India into states with robust transmission networks as grid bottlenecks in some regions are stifling wind and solar generation.

One of the Canadian private equity firm’s platforms plans to scale up investments in wind projects in southern India, where generation and transmission capacities are better aligned, Nawal Saini, head of India energy at Brookfield, told reporters on Tuesday. Some other platforms are supplying electricity directly to industrial customers through state grids, where curtailments are rare, he added.

Investments in grid infrastructure have lagged behind the boom in renewable generation globally, leaving energy systems unable to absorb all the electricity produced. The resulting excess power is impeding new installations. In India, states in the northern and western parts have struggled to build grid networks that match the expansion in solar energy.


The South Asian nation wasted 300 million units of renewable power in the first quarter this year as a result of grid congestion, according to energy research group Ember. The loss was about 0.4% of the total green generation in the three-month period.

The states of Rajasthan and Gujarat in the west accounted for the bulk of the surplus output, while the southern India absorbed almost all of its green power, Ember’s May report showed.

The grid curtailments have affected Brookfield’s renewables business, but the company sees the issue as temporary, Saini said at a virtual press briefing. Brookfield currently has about 12 gigawatts of renewable energy in operation across its portfolio, and is working to expand it to 45 gigawatts.

“It does impact the business, but not so materially that it kills the business case,” he said. “Long-term cash flows are generally OK and protected.”

The private equity firm is also bullish on India’s growing demand for real estate and digital infrastructure such as data centers, as the economy rapidly urbanizes.

Installed AI data center capacity in the country could grow fourfold to six gigawatts over the next five years, Arpit Agrawal, head of India infrastructure at Brookfield, said during the same briefing.