Finnish firm Fortum eyes hydro assets in India

About 15,128 Mw, or 26 per cent of Fortum's worldwide generation capacity is hydro based

Finland state-controlled Fortum India, which made a foray in the Indian solar power market last year, plans to acquire hydro power assets in India.

Sanjay Agarwal, managing director, said, “We will look at acquisition of hydro power plants. There are a very few proper assets to acquire. We, however, would look at mid-level hydro power plants.”

Though the company’s core expertise lies in heat-based power generation, 26 per cent of its total global generation capacity of 15,128 Mw is hydro-based. Twenty nine per cent of Fortum’s generation capacity comes from the company’s combined heat and power plants (CHP).

Shifting its gears to the renewable energy segment, Fortum acquired a 5-Mw solar power plant in Rajasthan in 2013 and also had bid for 10 Mw in the phase 2, second batch of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in January this year.

Eyeing more investments in solar power, the company is apprehensive about the imposition of anti-dumping duty on solar cell imports.

Agarwal added, “We are vendor and technology neutral. Our only contention is that the rules of the game can’t be changed when the sector is about to take-off”.