Ladies and gentlemen, today I'm going to do Q1 FY26 earnings update conference call hosted by Adani Energy Solutions Limited. From the Adani Energy Solutions side, we have the following on the call as main speakers: Mr. Kandarp Patel , CEO, AESL; Mr. Kunjal Mehta, CFO, AESL; Mr. Anupam Mishra, Head, Group Government Finance; Mr. Vijil Jain, Head, IR, AESL; Mr. Kapil Sharma, CEO, Transmission, AESL; Mr. Pushpendrasinh Zala, CEO, Smart Meter, AESL. As a reminder, all participant lines are in the listen-only mode. It will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your touchscreen phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vijil Jain from AESL. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Jain.
Thank you. Good morning, good afternoon. Thank you so much, everyone, for joining in. I just hope that you got a chance to go through the earnings material uploaded on the website. Just to very quickly explain the flow of the call, we will start with an opening remark from the CEO, Mr. Kandarp Patel, followed by a Q&A session and closing remarks from Mr. Kunjal Mehta, the CFO. If you have any questions, you can join the queue in advance so that we can manage the Q&A in a better way. Lastly, let me just now hand over the call to Mr. Kandarp Patel, CEO, for opening remarks. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, all investors and analyst friends who are joining this call. We are pleased to share that AEML has reported another good quarter in terms of financial performance and operational performance. Highlighting AESL's strong on-ground execution and focus on O&A. The company continues to focus on unlocking the growth through timely completion of transmission projects, ensuring stable performance in the distribution segment, and also maintaining industry-leading daily smart meter installation rates. I'll give you a few key highlights from Q1. We secured a new transmission project during this quarter called WRNES Talegaon Transmission Project. We also commissioned three transmission projects in this quarter. One was Khavda Phase 2 Part A. The second was Khavda Pooling Station. Both these projects are in Gujarat. Those are interstate projects.
The third one is Sangod Transmission Project, which is an interstate project in Rajasthan. With this new Talegaon project, our under construction order book stands at about INR 59,300 crore. With the smart meter, in fact, we made significant progress during this quarter on the lines of guidance that we had at the beginning of the year. We installed about 4.4 million meters during this quarter, which takes the cumulative number to 5.54 million meters. With this, we are poised to achieve our target of 7 million meters during the current year. This was the main issue around smart metering installation rate, and we have been able to achieve this kind of rate successfully over the entire quarter.
As far as progress at consolidated level is concerned, this year we did a CapEx of INR 2,224 crore as compared to INR 13 crore in last year quarter, which is about 1.7x of the CapEx that we did last quarter. Most of the CapEx has come from transmission and smart metering. The growth in CapEx has come from these two segments, whereas distribution CapEx in AEML has remained stable. Now, moving on to operational and financial performance. Operationally, also, we have done exceedingly well. We have achieved a revenue of 99.8%, which has also enabled us to earn an incentive of INR 29 crore. Now, with these three new projects getting commissioned, our total transmission network now stood at about 26,696 circuit km. As far as distribution is concerned, demand remains stagnant in AEML, essentially due to early onset of monsoon.
However, our Mundra distribution company retail's growth was 22% year on year, which was basically due to an increase in industrial demand in the Mundra region. As far as distribution loss is concerned, we continued to improve our performance. This quarter, our distribution loss stood at 4.24% as compared to 5.18% in the first quarter last year. With this level, we are one of the most efficient as far as P&D losses are concerned, not only in the country, but we are also comparable with the global benchmark. As far as smart metering is concerned, as I mentioned, we already commissioned 3.4 million meters in this quarter. Which is now total installed meter is about 5.5 million meters. Out of 5.5 million meters, 5.1 million meters has already commissioned, and revenue has started coming from this 5.1 million meters.
As far as C&I business is concerned, we have been talking that we will be focusing on this business. Now, with all of our efforts and our team in place, we have commenced that C&I business. Now we have completely big industrial and commercial customers aggregating a total load of about 717 MW that we are comparing to. So C&I, you will see a lot of action on C&I front in AESL. Similarly, in the cooling business, we have also made a start there. We are building India's largest District Cooling Facility at Mundra, with a capacity of 52,000 tons of refrigeration. With that, total capacity that we are implementing currently is 52,000 tons of refrigeration. And we are also talking to various developers, and you will see significant action in cooling solution business as well. As far as financial ability is concerned, total income has rose by 28%.
EBITDA has increased by 14% year- on- year, with now, as cost, INR 2,070 crore compared to INR 1,762 crore last year quarter one. PAT also increased significantly. It increased by 71% year on year to INR 539 crore. That was essentially because of the increase in EBITDA and lower depreciation and tax outgo. The cash profit has also improved significantly. Now it has crossed INR 1,000 crore this quarter as compared to around INR 900 crore in last quarter. As far as outlook is concerned, all the three core businesses see a significant opportunity in transmission, distribution, or smart meters. In transmission, we are already having an order book worth of INR 59,000 crore. We also expect bidding of about INR 90,000 crore in coming time, which includes even two large HVDC projects. We see a significant opportunity there as well.
As far as distribution is concerned, while we continue to do expansion or growth in AEML the way we are doing, we also see opportunity there. There are privatization discussions happening in UP . Also, our second license application from Navi Mumbai came up for hearing last week. We see action on that distribution side as well. As far as smart metering is concerned, we will continue to focus on implementation. We would want to achieve the number of 7 million and more during the current year. With this kind of exposure and experience, we would certainly want to maintain our market share of about 22% in future opportunities as well. With all these things, I think in AESL, AEML there is a significant amount of opportunity in the business vertical. Our team is fully geared.
That can be seen from the results that we will continue to focus on distribution and managing those assets well and efficiently. Now we can go to Q&A session.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Mohit Kumar with ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. The question is on this smart meter. I think you mentioned that we have roughly around 5.2 million smart meters registry. The quarter will be 2.4 million, right? Is it fair to assume that by the end of this year, into the circle, we will have more than 10 million smart meters installed? Can you please help us with the revenue run rate if we can get from the smart meter in the 527 based on this 10 million installation?
Good morning. You are always the opening best man in our session. With this execution run rate, we are fully confident that we will be going beyond one crore smart meter installation by the time we complete this financial year. In fact, we could have done a little better in the current quarter, but the unexpected rain in May affected our progress. Even with that, we continue to have a daily average of about 27,000 meters. With that, we will be easily completing that one crore target that we have taken for ourselves.
For the revenue run rate from the smart meters?
Yeah. Mohit, so roughly we continue to give you the guidance that the revenue would be based on the meter month based on the number of meters and when they get installed. So roughly each meter month would give us a revenue of about INR 100 per meter per month. Even in this quarter. The 5.5 million meters actually translates to about 10.6 million meter month. And 10.6 million meter month on a meter month concept would translate to a revenue of about INR 1.15 billion in this quarter. I mean, we are not reporting statement numbers for the smart meters, but I think in the going forward basis, we intend to do that. For this quarter, on a meter month basis, the revenue earned is INR 1.15 billion. The index and the accounting statement revenue classification is different. But from a conventional perspective.
I can share that INR 1.15 crore is the per meter per month revenue for this quarter.
This is on top of the lump sum payment that you get.
No. This is INR 150 million.
Is there any update on the smart meter ordering form pending for Tamil Nadu? Has it completed?
No. So Tamil Nadu has been getting extended. In fact, they also revised the bid document a couple of times. Now they are again planning to go ahead with the bidding process. Still, the Tamil Nadu bidding has not happened.
Thank you.
Thank you. Reminding to all the participants, please press star and one for question. We have a question next from the line of Mohit Kumar from ICICI Security. Please go ahead.
Sorry.
Sorry. The question was, I say, on the HVDC pipeline, take Mumbai, Mumbai, Kure. The plan to produce. I think we're working on phase II, right? phase II . Are you expecting this to come in somewhere in this circle or next circle or 50? Or are you still waiting for the approval?
As far as Mumbai HVDC is concerned, in fact, we are progressing very well. We expect to commission the Mumbai HVDC project during this financial year itself, which is phase one. We have already requested the CTU for evaluating whether phase two will be required or not, because in their scheme of things, it will be required. Now we are asking them as to when CTU thinks that the project should be operational. Basically, there is study and analysis that the project will be progressing ahead. As of now, we will not be able to tell you as to when that approval will come, timeline. That project certainly will be a starting issue because they have already taken that project into their long-term plan.
Understood. The last question on the revenue side for this quarter for the transmission. I think we have last year, we added one project and one project for one HVDC . Last quarter, we added three more, right? Put together, I think we've added around INR 58 billion-INR 59 billion of asset in Q1 FY 2026. The revenue is up flat in this quarter. In this quarter for transmission, we are normally about 20%.
You are right. So basically, the key reason for the flat revenue is one is that, of course, as the CapEx completes and the project gets commissioned, this quarter we've actually done an additional transmission revenue of INR 66 crore. But what happens is that in certain assets, which is the traditional projects, which are cost-plus assets, there is a depreciation factor. And since the depreciation reduces, the cost-plus asset or the revenue also translates to a lower number. Therefore, in case of certain cost-plus assets, the revenue declined. Which in this quarter, unfortunately, the transmission earnings on account of new projects that got commissioned offsetted that revenue. So INR 66 crore of new revenue was there. On account of new projects that got completed. It got offset by the higher depreciation charge on the cost-plus assets, which are historically with the company.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you. Reminded to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question comes from the line of Anuj Bhatia with Invested. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Off late, we have been listening to a lot of concerns related to the commissioning of the transmission projects, which actually is leading to delay in the execution of renewable capacity. Just want to get your thoughts or stress on this, about actually dealing with the projects, how we are progressing. In case of COWRA and other smart projects over here. What are the major bottlenecks which are leading to this kind of a delay?
Anuj, you must have noticed we commissioned two transmission projects relating to COWRA in this quarter. In fact, both the projects got commissioned prior to their scheduled date of commissioning. As far as other projects are concerned, we are progressing. In fact, in all the projects, we are more or less on time except two projects, which are NKTL and WRSR. NKTL, we know the reason, but that project, and even WRSR, is also on the verge of commissioning. All of our projects are going on time and schedule. Even HVDC, we are going to commission in this year itself. That will be a landmark for the Mumbai region. No project has got commissioned in such a short timeframe in the Mumbai region. As far as renewable evacuation is concerned, you are right. There are certain projects of other developers that got delayed.
This has, in fact, created evacuation of renewable power both in the Rajasthan region as well as in COWRA region. The main difficulty which is being faced in the sector is obviously in equipment. Nowadays, the larger issue is not equipment. It is the ability of skilled manpower for stringing and erection of the tower.
Got it. So they don't face different terms as measured in the process of that today?
Yeah. We have set up our project implementation in such a way that we do not face these challenges. We are also trying various ways of mechanizing these operations, so your dependability on manpower reduces there. We are also undertaking a lot of training to create new pools for such manpower requirements.
Got it. Can you tell, you mentioned about the upcoming INR 90,000 crore, so kind of possibility in the transmission bids which are lined up. Can you set a timeline by when can the tender be floated? Also, you mentioned two HVDC projects are also included in this INR 90,000 crore. What would be the quantum of this?
This INR 90,000 crore project should get bid out in around one year time. Two HVDC projects are, one for Kaurara, that is Kaurara-Ulson, and another one is for Rajasthan.
Are the values ready for it?
Rajasthan project would be around INR 25,000 crore. This whole part would also be around INR 24,000 crore.
Okay. Okay. Last question on the smart metering. I believe we still sit at around close to INR 22 crore of an order book which we have in the smart meter space. Our target was to reach it, I mean, scale it up to around INR 60 crore over the next two or three years kind of a time period. Any updates on that? Because if the projects are not getting added and refreshed orders, in that case, how do we target to open that INR 60 crore block?
The fact remains that still about 120 crore meters are to be bid out. There are many states who have not taken an initiative. We feel that once the positive results from various states where smart metering has been implemented start going in, probably those states will also take up those smart metering projects. Meanwhile, what we are doing, we are focusing on our execution. We wanted to finish as early as possible our existing order book. This year, we will at least complete 7 million and reach to 1 crore plus meters. Next year, we plan to complete the balance part. We are confident that during this period, one and a half year, the states which are pending for bidding, those all states will, the opportunity will come up.
Okay. Which are these the states who are likely to come up for the smart meter bid in the near term? Or the likelihood for which would be more?
Part of the Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu. Those are the big states which are still having a smart metering opportunity.
Thank you, sir. That was really helpful. Thank you and wish you good luck.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Dhruv Muchhal. HDFC AMC, please go ahead.
Sorry. Thank you so much. Sir. The main key question on transmission revenue, the company comes in, we are not seeing that in the history. You mentioned that there is a 66 crore drag because of the, broadly 66 crore drag because of the depreciation. Adjustment with the regulatory groups. Is that correct, sir?
66 crore is the addition on account of new crores?
Addition.
Addition.
Okay.
On account of the depreciation.
Broadly, 60 or 70 crore would be depreciation. On revenue, depreciation is lower and it's 50.
66 crore to be precise on depreciation and 66 crore. On account of increase in revenue, on account of new projects coming in.
Okay. If my understanding is right, you would subtract your part. It doesn't mean your depreciation is lower. Your input is also lower or the revenue is also lower. Correct?
Correct. Correct.
Is this more fully here or something that was already done in the, I mean, in FY 2025 and this part of it is happening? I mean, for the next quarter, this will?
Yeah. Next quarter, you will see all the projects which were commissioned during the last three or four quarters. The revenue will start coming in in the future quarters. This will not be reflected in the new quarters, in the coming quarters.
I mean, on a Q1 or Q2, it will not reflect, but on YoY, we said it will still reflect.
Correct.
Got it. Are there any other meaningful such projects where there is a relative interest? I mean, I think earlier we got over 100, after that you see a big depreciation. Is that right?
In all cost-plus assets, it will happen that way only. This was happening in the earlier two lines which were there where two years got completed. Because of that, the depreciation impact got reduced. Now, most of the projects are on tariff base. You will not see such type of impact going forward.
Okay. So majority of the drag is already behind now. They have completed the earliest. I wanted to probably, you mentioned a few things that you have started. I wanted to understand the key concepts that this will take. If you could share how the economy for the C&I business will work for you, how do you plan to scale it up, what loans that you are targeting, what kind of customers you are targeting, and yeah, some concepts of this.
Dhruv, essentially, the concept here is that we will provide an end-to-end energy solution to the customers. We will take full responsibility of not only cost but also reliability and creating a right mix for that customer in such a way that they achieve their ESG target as well as their cost is optimized. We started with our cement business, and we did an excellent contribution there in terms of reduction in energy cost. Now we have started with third parties as well. There are a total of 13 consumers where we are providing these services, 14 industry customers in fact. The total load currently is about 770. The booking of services will increase as we will contract out those energy storage capacity, and our ability to serve their RTC load will increase significantly.
Once we have that storage capacity contract out with us, we will be able to scale it up very fast because we will not only be able to offer them a larger share of green power as compared to the existing distribution supply, but we will also be able to reduce their cost. Our target is to achieve about 7,000 MW in another five years.
Okay. So your economics is the cost that which you purchase. Energy cost that which you sell, right?
Correct.
You do a PPA with your, you do a, I'm not sure, buying agreement with some of the developers, including a few, yeah, a few developers. And you have a fixed selling price, a fixed selling price with your customers. How does the.
There is one fundamental difference. Normally, when you talk of trading, usually you must have seen, through tech investments, what we will be doing is aggregation of the capacity. And from aggregated capacity, we will be offering a customized solution. In our case, you will hardly see any back-to-back or a mirror contract where you only earn a trading margin. That will be a significant difference there.
Basically, similar to what we've already talked about, it's kind of a similar structure for C&I customers.
Got it. The price which you sell to the customer, is it a fixed price or does it change? Is it a discount to what the ultimate cost is? For example, the customer will be buying from a discount. How does the price move?
It depends on the customer requirement. There are certain contracts where we submit a fixed price to them. There are certain customers who want a solution where the price is linked to distribution company's tariff. We are open for both.
You see largely in terms of the scale-up, 7,000 is a large number over five years. It's contributing to the C&I market. That's why. The open access rules, the restrictions which forms, the issues that they used to raise earlier. I'm not sure the banking rules and all those, they are easily sorted out for you to scale up.
Yeah. Through all those complications, we will manage. That is what the differentiation between what we are offering in C&I as compared to all other players. Now, our having exposure of running a distribution company, running a green project, and all those regulatory knowledge that we have accumulated over a period of time, we will leverage those resources and knowledge and provide them because at the end of the day, those customers will not be able to understand this kind of complexity of our power sector. There, our role will be significant. For them, it will be a one-point solution. We will do everything for them.
Got it. This last point is, will most of the customers be interested in customers that are very large in 50 minutes, or you can also work with interested customers?
See, we can also work with interested. Interested as well.
Okay. So that's great. Thank you so much. That's very helpful. Thanks for your honesty.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Adi Entivedi with Nippon Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. The guidance for FY 2026, as far as the transmission business CapEx is concerned, was INR 12,000 crore-INR 13,000 crore. This quarter, we've done about INR 1,288 crore of transmission CapEx, which is nearly 9% of the targeted CapEx. Are we on track to meet the targeted CapEx for the year? According to the CEA data, the consumption of transmission line addition in the first quarter of FY 2026 was less than 20% of the planned addition. What have been the reasons for a decline in capacity addition for the industry?
Aditya, we are more or less on track. Yes, some impact has happened because of unexpected monsoon in May. We have realigned our plans, and we are confident that we will fulfill our guidance for the current year. As far as performance at a country level is concerned, you will see almost every year, the addition during the first quarter is much less as compared to the last quarter of the year. That is the reason, one. Obviously, rain has affected all other players as well. Besides that, the shortage in manpower, essentially for erection and spending, that has also caused a dip in the performance in the sector.
Okay. As far as the transmission tender pipeline is scaled at about INR 900 billion, what is your target win rate? Are you seeing more competition out in private players?
I don't think competition landscape will change either positively or negatively much during the next year. In fact, there is all the reasons that intensity should reduce because the project tender pipeline in the sector are a good number. With almost all players, there are sufficient capacity available for implementation. We will also be very, very disciplined as far as taking up a new project is concerned. We will be taking those projects where we feel confident of executing in time, both in terms of execution and from OEM supply side. Also, that is within our financial metrics and parameters that we have decided for ourselves.
Got it. One last question is that AEML's operating EBITDA has declined 7.6% year on year. This has improved distribution loss metrics. What are the underlying cost pressures, or have there been some regulatory changes driving this? Is this structural or transitory?
Distribution loss, whatever improvement that I do in distribution loss, it doesn't contribute to my profitability. The advantage of reduction in distribution loss goes to our customers.
Got it. Thank you so much.
Just to add, I mean, on a year-on-year basis, if you recall last year, we had Dahanu power plant. This time we do not have. That is the reason, one of the reasons why on a year-on-year basis, you will see a flat growth. Despite there being a growth, underlying growth on account of addition of CapEx, because Dahanu power plant not being there this quarter, that is the reason why you have an operating revenue flat even in distribution business.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Nikhil with UTI Mutual Funds. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir. Just a couple of questions. Earlier, did you mention what is the contracted C&I CapEx being? Contracted C&I addition, sorry. Capacity that you have as on date?
As on date, we have 717 MW.
What is the size of the customers of you? Have this?
These are ranging from 100 MW- 150 MW.
15- 160.
I mean, two years back, you have seen you apply for parallel licenses across a few cities. All of a sudden, in the last two, three months, you have seen the activity pick up over there. I mean, can you just guide us as to what is happening in this case and what is the leadership timeline of parallel licenses being awarded?
We applied for parallel licenses in Maharashtra as well as Uttar Pradesh. Also in Gujarat, expansion of our MUL license area. The thing progressed well initially in Gujarat and Maharashtra, and then that remained pending for quite a long time with the commission. Last week, MERC held a public hearing. Now the order is reserved, which is the last step in license grant. We see that there should be a decision from MERC very soon. As far as other states are concerned, we are not sure about the timeline because it is pending with them since a long time. From a legal standpoint, I do not see any opportunity, I mean, any issue because this is, our application is in line with the legal requirement. Someday they will have to clear that application. On the timeline, I am not sure as to when that can happen.
Understood. I mean, and how would this parallel license exactly work? Will you be using existing infrastructure and paying some commission, or would you be setting up your own infra?
We have to, the legal requirement is that when you become a second license, you have to set up your own network. You can't use the existing network. Accordingly, when we applied for Navi Mumbai, we gave a detailed rollout plan to MERC as to how are we going to set up and expand our network in Navi Mumbai area. We gave a rollout plan for five years, and we mentioned as to how we will progress from area to area-wise.
Okay. So you want to implement in interested areas, but likely to expand in newer areas?
Sorry?
You want basically targeting existing areas, but maybe you would like to get into the undeveloped areas, basically, where there is no existing infra?
No, no. We will be going in all the area. In the entire distribution license area that will be granted. We will develop a network in that area, gradually, area by area. We will pick up one area, complete the entire network there. Then we go to another parcel. Then we will go to another parcel. That is how we'll be doing.
Sure. I have a few questions regarding the economic profit, but I'll take that. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Kunjal Mehta. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. How am I audible?
Yeah, yeah, a udible .
Thanks for the opportunity. I'm aware of some scaling of the smart home business so well. I just want to understand the unit economics along with you. Could you please explain the unit economics? What is the initial CapEx, and who plays, and how long is the tenure?
The initial CapEx is roughly in the range of around INR 4,500-INR 4,800 per meter. We get, based on the tariffs which we have quoted, which is about INR 11,000.
11,000 over a 93-month period.
Okay. The eventual payment will come from the government regulatory increase with the DISCOM or what? Who pays eventually for it?
It is paid by the DISCOM, but it comes directly from the customer's wallet. As the consumers who are paying to the DISCOM on a monthly basis for the power which we are consuming, from that wallet itself, it comes directly into our account.
Okay. So the payment risk is not there after the investment?
Correct.
Got it. Sir, just one other part was the C&I. I just wanted to understand, would we be keeping the trading margin in it, or how does it work in it? Because we would do a back-to-back arrangement with the ZinCo, is what my understanding is as you explained. Could you explain?
Yeah, Delucchi, what we will not do is a back-to-back arrangement. Our way, because see, we will have to offer a customized solution to each of the customers. And it would be very, very different from customer to customer. The model here is we will contract different capacity, we will aggregate it, and make a customized solution for each of the customers from that aggregate capacity. When you are selling power, there is a huge amount of opportunity created when you aggregate the capacity, which is not there in a back-to-back basis. Essentially, we genuinely feel that when you are doing a back-to-back arrangement, you are hardly adding any value there.
Understood.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Shiroon Kapur with Jeffries. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I just wanted to ask on your transmission business, what are your capitalization targets for FY 2026 and FY 2027?
The capitalization essentially would mean that once the project gets completed, the underlying asset gets capitalized. This year, roughly around INR 15,000 crore of projects are likely to get capitalized, which includes the largest one being the Mumbai HVDC projects. We will continue to maintain that run rate of close to around INR 15,000 crore-INR 16,000 crore of capitalization to get completed each year. As you know, the company has close to INR 60,000 crore of projects which are to be completed in the next three to four years.
Just a quick thing. From this Mumbai HVDC, how much is the value of this project specifically?
7,000.
Got it. On your C&I business, just want to understand how much is the revenue and profit contribution in this quarter and in FY 2025. Over the business?
This quarter is not that significant indeed. This was the first quarter where we actually started earning. On a number, this is around INR 180 crore which was earned during this quarter, largely from the C&I business.
Okay. Got it. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Dhruv Muchhal. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the follow-up. I guess the interesting thing is, it seems to be very active here in the road of a bit. Is it just because they're dropping all these bids or because of the, I'm not sure, because of the execution challenges they are waiting and watching? Just a couple of questions. What's causing this slowdown, or somewhat of slowdown?
Through the waiting, the slowdown, not because of execution challenge or anything else, but there were a few deliberations happened at CEA and CTU level that was regarding some regulatory issue. Also, they wanted to have a relook at the way the transmission system has been planned and designed. They wanted to review it. Having done that, now you will see that being happening the way it was happening earlier.
No major change in terms of the part that the system was shipping earlier. How does the review of it is?
Yeah, yeah. No major change. In fact, if we can share that. They undertook an evaluation whether HVDC should be implemented or a battery storage should be implemented. Having done the detailed study, they now decided that the system that they have planned, they will continue with that. Therefore, now you will see the bidding happening. In fact, one HVDC bid, the initial bid has already been submitted. Now the bids are under technical evaluation. Maybe in a month's time, they will do the reverse auction.
Thank you. That's all. Thank you.
Thank you. We might have all the questions. That is the star and the first question. Next question comes from the line of Mahesh Patil, ICIC Securities. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the cargo on the HVDC. So this is the one you mentioned that the business would be different and. Watch to see the next one or two months, correct?
Correct.
Okay. And, sir, on the other opportunities at the interstate transmission, this one was coming up there to do. A large amount of transmission. So obviously, the opportunity and expansion is going on, or that's it?
Mahesh, not only Maharashtra, and as we discussed over various calls, we see a lot of opportunities coming now from state sector. Maharashtra has already started. Two projects have been bought under auction last month. We see a couple of more projects in one month's time. Similarly, Karnataka has also come out with a few projects under TBCB. Even Rajasthan has approved a significant amount of transmission projects under TBCB. We see a lot of projects and opportunities coming for transmission from various states now.
Okay. And, sir, one question is on the C&I side. Typically, what is the loss rate shared with the customers?
Currently, the few contracts are for 13-15 months. And there are two, three contracts, which is a long-term contract, which goes up to 10 years as well.
Okay, sir. Thank you. Sir, last question is on the three other projects for Mumbai HVDC that you are planning to commission this year. Any timeline next month or something like that? These projects are coming on then?
The way things are progressing, we should be commissioning somewhere in the later part of January or February, but before this year-end, to be sure.
Okay, sir. And, sir, lastly, on the Mumbai HVDC part, we can anticipate so. Any estimate for the cost of electricity scheduling to be earlier in 2027? Do you have any estimate?
It would be very, very premature, even to find out the cost today because we are not pretty sure as to what is the kind of configuration that they will decide. Means, besides the HVDC, there might be connected GIS or subsequent. Once the scope is clear, then probably we'll be able to figure out what would be the estimated cost. Obviously, it will be around INR 10,000 crore, considering the current market situation in the HVDC market.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Navik Shah, Invest Securities.
Hello, sir. You mentioned in your opening remarks about the 45,000 tons cooling facility at Mundra. Can you throw some light on that business? What is the opportunity? What are we looking at? What exactly is the potential?
Manik, this concept itself is developing in the country. Theoretically, all the AC requirements can be converted into district cooling. It is certainly a humongous opportunity. This concept is very, very useful and could be very efficient when cluster development is happening and of a mixed use. Any development where multiple buildings of residential, commercial, and other things are developing, this could be a very, very good concept because you get cooling as a service. You do not have to invest into those AC and managing and maintaining those AC. When you have aggregation and this big size of plant which is distributing cool air, you also get a lot of optimization and efficiency. Typically, when you have a district cooling plant, your energy efficiency will improve by at least 20%. We strongly feel that this concept will get more traction in coming times in India as well.
Like in Middle East and other developed countries, the district cooling is a normal concept there. It is a normal phenomena there.
Understood, sir. Has it anything to do with the data centers which you are building? Are we going to use it there or how is it?
The data centers can also be one of the end use. It could be anywhere. Any new development that is happening, district cooling could be a good concept. In fact, we are talking to a few developers, a big developer in the U.K., Hyderabad, as well as Chennai, where cluster development is happening. It seems to progress very well there. We see that we are getting replicated everywhere else as well.
Understood. Sir, regarding the depreciation on old assets, this trend will continue for the projects or assets which we have. Eventually, the new income will continue to get offset going ahead, right?
No, so this will not continue to happen because earlier, the projects were awarded on a cost-plus basis. Now, most of the projects are awarded on a fixed-term basis.
Okay. Understood. How do we see the impact of the ISPs charges? Will it be impacted, or how is generally comes with the customer?
Are you talking of C&I or a transmission?
Yes, yes. A transmission.
So transmission.
Or CNI?
Sorry?
In fact, both the cases we can help us understand.
Both the cases. Okay. As far as transmission business is concerned, we have no connection with the ISPs tariff, which is being charged to distribution company or customer. Essentially, how it operates is that all the transmission charges of all interstate transmission assets get segregated, and that segregated cost gets allocated to all the customers. Depending on how much new transmission capacity is getting added, how many are getting depreciated, this is that the interstate transmission charges keep on varying. As far as transmission business is concerned, there is no linkage with the ISPs transmission charges being charged to distribution company or any consumer. In the C&I, obviously, it can impact. Now, with the new transmission charge regime in place, which is a point of providence, there, irrespective from which source you are taking power, the transmission charges table remains the same.
In the sense, whatever that average transmission charge works out at a country level, that will be applicable to him.
Understood. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Vishal Perival. Please talk to him. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. In the call, you did mention that in the transmission side, we are seeing opportunity. Out of this INR 900 billion worth of opportunity which you mentioned, what could be the biggest difference? Second, parallel to that, this opportunity, I mean, are you seeing moving more towards the state in the last couple of quarters? How exactly is it?
Because this 90,000, almost 90% currently is from interstate. Only a few, two states have recently started. You're right. As we move forward, we see the buy of interstate projects getting bigger as compared to what we have today.
Okay. And then just from an economics point of view, the central interstate and the state one, does this really differ between your bidding and when we start running funding assets?
No, I don't think it differs because conceptually both are the same. What only differs is your counterparty. In the state, it is STU, whereas in interstate, it is CTU.
Okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. In terms of even the numbers of players who are bidding, they are largely limited? Because at state, we do have seen a limited set of players, so.
State and interstate, it would be for the less number as compared to interstate.
Okay. Okay. Okay. And then one last thing. In terms of segmental that we report, one, where do we club our smart meter companies?
Smart meter currently forms part of the other listing. We are not showing separately. Smart meter as a segment because it is still this rightly basis. Going forward, as I mentioned earlier, going forward in the future quarter, smart meter will also be showing this as a segment.
Okay. So in others, when we see a sharp increase on a year-on-year basis, is this primarily driven by revenue from seeing more smart meter, or is there any other revenue which is forming part of this?
That is because of the ST income. Because of the ST construction income increases. The service concession arrangement income also increases.
Okay. Will that be number handy to you, sir? I mean, just to see how much is just a consistent amount.
This quarter, the number was INR 178 crore, INR 178 crore on account of transmission assets and INR 45 crore on account of smart meter assets.
Okay. Okay. Yeah. Sure, sir. I think that's all from my side. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Vinod with Philip Kavanagh. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. Sir, I just want to ask you about this recent MCP ruling in the last meeting, the digital last meeting. They have stated that in every project, you should have a comparable calculation with PES. Are these two strictly comparable in that sense? Can PES actually replace a transmission line? Even if you have a PES, you would still require transmission capacity, right, to transmit that power from the battery storage systems?
The answer is yes and no both. You can certainly reduce the requirement of additional transmission capacity when you have a battery storage co-located with a renewable generator. Today, if you say, if I have a 10,000 MW solar power plant, I will require a 10,000 MW equivalent transmission capacity. If I store half of the capacity, then probably I might require a 5,000 MW capacity, because solar generates during eight hours, where the 10,000 MW is being used, and the rest of the time, it is not being used. If you have a battery storage, you can obviously use that transmission capacity during non-solar hour. It can certainly reduce the requirement of transmission capacity. Your point is also valid, that to a certain extent, you will require the transmission capacity.
It may not be in the fullest extent, but obviously, you will require a transmission capacity a little more than what capacity comes after consideration of battery storage.
Okay. Okay. Would that be a right way to look at it, that it will reduce the demand for high-voltage systems?
Yes. It can optimize the requirement for a transmission system. New transmission system at least.
The other thing is, I think the NCT also calls for, I think, technology-agnostic HVDC projects now. How would that work? Because ultimately, who decides whether it should be NCT or PST? Is it a developer, or is it NCT?
Currently, it is being decided by the planner. So it is basically NCT, CTU, and CEA. There is a discussion around this point that should it be kept open and leave it to the developer to decide as to which technology will be better for given the transmission requirement.
Now, they're saying it's agnostic in that the developer gets to bid, right? You can bid either on an LCC costing or a VSC costing, depending on.
It has not happened so far in the current situation.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you for answering my questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Anuj Bhatia with Investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah, sir. Thanks for the opportunity again. Just to get an update on the U.K. DISCOM side, where exactly are we in the stage of this tender? Where do these have been submitted, and when we can expect the final outcome to be out? There is a lot of work around the two DISCOM messages related to product itself. Any update you can provide will be helpful, sir.
By this time, the RFP should have come out. It has yet not come out. We expect that RFP to come out soon. Those bid submission and evaluation and award will happen. What we have understood is that discussion is going on between UPRC and the government of UP on certain issues relating to privatization. When they have done a final decision, they should come out with an RFP for initiating the bidding process.
Okay. That's helpful. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if the time is respected, we have reached the end of the question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Kunjal Mehta for closing comments.
Thank you all for taking out the time to attend the call. Just to remind anybody, in case of any paucity of time, if we have not answered any clarification or any questions, we are just a phone call away. You can reach out to us for any additional information. Thank you all. Thank you once again for the call.
Thank you. We are from Adani Energy Solutions Limited. For completing this conference, thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your line.