ReNew Energy Global Plc (NASDAQ:RNW) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Sumant Sinha: Yes. So pump hydro is a very long gestation business. And I would say, the first pump hydro projects coming up will probably be in 2025. And that only just really one and the others might take a little bit longer. Having said that, we do believe that pump hydro has a role to play in some of the applications in the country, and so we are looking at pump hydro opportunities. But as I said, it’s a long gestation business, and therefore, it will take time for those kinds of projects to come on stream. Our view continues to be also that the batteries will have a very important goal to play from a storage standpoint, and eventually, that is going to get deployed at scale as well. Of course, over the last year or so, battery prices have gone up, but our sense is that, of course, now with commodity price leasing and with government policy is hopefully turning a little bit more supportive, we should be able to see battery prices come down and make them much more competitive with respect to the shorter to medium-term storage activities.

So I think both batteries and pump hydro have different roles to play. Batteries, of course, as I said, can be deployed much faster and in a much more modular manner, and therefore, give more flexibility and are less — in some ways, less grid intensive or transmission intensive. In fact, anything we allow you to use the transmission lines more favorably. Pump hydro is a little bit different because you have to move the power across long distances potentially. And so therefore, longer term, our view still remains that batteries will prevail, but I don’t think it’s neither or you’ll probably have both happening to some extent. And we are looking at pump hydro as well.

Operator: The next question will come from Puneet Gulati with HSBC.

Puneet Gulati: My first question is with respect to the wind PLF, which has surprised again this quarter. And I remember last year was a similar event and you had said that you will reevaluate your wind projections. Can you comment on where are you in terms of reestimating the projections there?

Sumant Sinha: Yes, Puneet, we had said — you’re absolutely right that we had said that we wait for this wind, the high wind season to finish and then consider doing a reevaluation depending on the outcome. And I do agree with you that wind has been not on track this year as well. Although every year for the last 3 years, the delta from the long-term mean has continued to narrow. So that at least has been happening, but it has not reverted back to what we have assumed has been the mean. What we will do over the next few months is that we will work with an external agency to relook at all the long-term assessments of our wind projects and try to arrive at, see, in fact, any change needs to be made in those forecasts or not. So that is something that we are starting that process now, and I think over the next few months, we should have some initial views coming in on that.