Shivanand Nimbargi, a power veteran with over three decades of experience, has had an interesting and eventful professional journey. He worked for Babcock & Wilcox, ABB ABL, GEC Alsthom and Alstom (all the previous entities were a part of Alstom), etc., across different departments including erection, commissioning, sales, procurement, quality, project management and business management. He has also served on the board of NTPC Alstom Services Limited. In 2011, Nimbargi moved away from conventional energy to set up a renewable energy company, Green Infra, for IDFC Private Equity Company. About five years later, he shifted gears and joined L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited as MD and CEO. In 2018, UK development finance institution CDC Infrastructure invited Nimbargi to head Ayana Renewable Power, its renewable energy venture in India. Today, Nimbargi’s top priorities for Ayana are to increase its portfolio to 10 GW by 2025 and augment round-the-clock capacity.
Taking a top-level view of the sector, Nimbargi says, “The sector is going through a challenging time. With the current global geopolitical situation, supply chains have been impacted. This is in addition to the challenges we faced in the pandemic. We also have issues around the outstanding payments from discoms, which continue to rise. We are waiting for the Electricity Act amendment to go through without much dilution so that the current financial burden on discoms on account of subsidies, free power, etc. gets isolated from their balance sheets, to be rather covered in state budgets. This will help discoms manage cash and pay their dues and bring them to the normal cycle of 30-45 days. Further, the provisions for a cross-subsidy balance fund and a mandatory payment security mechanism will act as catalysts for improving the sectoral environment.”
Nimbargi has some recommendations for addressing the sector’s challenges and decarbonising the economy. “We need to develop the transmission network, streamline rules for land acquisition in different states, make the approval-granting process time-bound and efficient,” he says.
As for the person behind the professional, Nimbargi belongs to Karnataka but has lived, studied and worked across India. He is an engineer married to an engineer. He studied mechanical engineering at the PDA College of Engineering, Gulbarga, Karnataka, and has done Advanced Management Program from INSEAD. His wife chose to be a stay-at-home mom and raise their children. Downtime for Nimbargi is about spending time on the golf greens.