As India accelerates its journey towards its net zero goals, decarbonisation is no longer optional for commercial and industrial (C&I) consumers, but a necessity. The growing corporate demand for re-newable energy is driven not only by sustainability commitments but also by commercials. With high grid tariffs, switching to renewables, particularly solar, presents a financially viable solution for C&I us-ers. Many businesses are now procuring renewable energy through captive rooftop solar installations, open access solar projects, or transactions on power exchanges to mitigate costs and secure long-term energy reliability. At the same time, navigating this transition is complex due to diverse procurement models, evolving regulatory frameworks and state-specific policies.
The introduction of green energy open access rules in multiple states has unlocked new opportunities in the C&I solar space. Developers and consumers are exploring innovative procurement structures, battery storage integrations and flexible supply contracts to optimise their energy strategies, while meeting climate targets. Against this backdrop, at Renewable Watch’s 18th annual conference on “Solar Power in India”, several C&I developers discussed their experiences in the sector. Edited excerpts…
Dr Anuvrat Joshi
H Nu Energy’s projects are geographically spread across southern India, particularly Tamil Nadu, the industrial hub of the Chakan region in Pune and across northern states such as Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.
Many developers initially ventured into C&I rooftop solar and on-site solar solutions, but as open ac-cess solar space gained traction post-2018, the focus shifted to off-site solar procurement models. However, the procedural burden of setting up special purpose vehicles and navigating group captive requirements has made off-site procurement difficult for the C&I space.
Moreover, for numerous clients, especially those with smaller loads, dispersed across multiple facili-ties, rooftop and onsite systems remain the only viable alternative. Thus, we have particularly concen-trated on clients whose energy needs are small, especially in the range of 1-2 MW.
C&I clients are fragmented and logistically constrained. In addition, the daily loads for them can be var-iable and there is limited space availability as well. Under such conditions, the use of battery energy storage systems (BESSs) has become key in this segment. BESS can be relied upon to stabilise fluctua-tions, manage outages and ensure continuous operations without depending on net metering, which, in many states, comes with regulatory strings attached.
Additionally, greater control over module choice is possible when net metering is not mandated, which is crucial for assuring a 25-year performance in the C&I space.
Overall, the capital expenditure-driven model now dominates on-site installations, with around three-fourths of installations relying on upfront capital investment. This is an inversion of the trend observed during the 2018-20 period.
“The capital expenditure-driven model now dominates on-site solar installations, with around three-fourths of installations relying on upfront capital investment.” Dr Anuvrat Joshi
Shantanu Mishra
Gentari India manages a diversified renewable portfolio of utility-scale and C&I projects across roof-top, on-site and open access models. Gentari has also been expanding through utility-scale hybrid pro-jects, recently winning a 400 MW wind-solar hybrid project secured through competitive bidding. The company has its largest portfolio in Karnataka, followed by Uttar Pradesh. The company also develops projects across Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Of the total portfolio, 600-650 MW comprises on-site solar deployed across approximately 450 sites.
In the C&I space, consumers are eager to take the benefit of general network access regulations and tap the ISTS network. In line with this, we commissioned a 300 MW ISTS-connected open access solar project in January 2024 for a major cement manufacturer. By designing a firm supply contract guaran-teeing 93-94 per cent capacity utilisation factor from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., the project ensures optimal offtake, with about 70 per cent of the project’s total energy being consumed during these optimal hours, aligning with the client’s operational needs.
Following this, the same client demanded round-the-clock (RTC) power with block-wise minimum supply commitments. In response, Gentari is developing a solar-wind battery hybrid project for RTC supply, comprising 22 MW of wind, 11 MW of solar and 20 MWh of battery storage. The project is en-gineered to deliver power consistently across 24 hours, with daytime blocks receiving 7.5-13.5 MW and nighttime blocks about 16.5 MW.
“In the C&I space, consumers are eager to take the benefit of general network access regulations and tap the interstate transmission system network.” Shantanu Mishra
Akshat Nagpal
Cleantech Solar has a renewables portfolio of over 1.2 GWp, of which 20 per cent is rooftop solar-based. The company’s operations span Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, along with India. In India, its core presence is across Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, with nearly 70 per cent of its current installations. Additionally, the company is actively expanding to Rajasthan and Gujarat because of poli-cy growth and ease of implementation in these states.
The company’s portfolio primarily comprises solar projects, which have particularly benefited from state-level policies that supported 17-20 hours of energy banking. Furthermore, in the past three to four years, the company has focused on wind projects as well.
In the evening peak hours from 5 p.m. to midnight, stand-alone solar, on-site and open access models have been rendered inadequate for covering the evening demand. Consequently, storing solar energy generated during the day for despatch during peak hours seems the best solution. This benefits all stakeholders involved in the project.
Further, reliance on expensive spot market purchases on exchanges during high-demand periods can also be reduced by incorporating storage solutions. Thus, we are focusing on solar with storage pro-jects for our C&I clients. Several stand-alone BESS tenders and projects have been floated from early 2025, which is a positive for the industry, going forward.
“We are focusing on solar with storage projects for our C&I clients.” Akshat Nagpal
Amit Sharma
CleanMax has over 2 GWp of installed capacity across India and international markets, including Thai-land, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and more recently, Saudi Arabia. The company’s overall port-folio comprises a mix of third-party power purchase agreements (PPAs), group captives, rooftop and hybrid solutions. About 400 MW of this overall portfolio is from the rooftop solar segment.
The company’s largest portfolio lies in Karnataka, supported by its strong policies, followed by Gujarat. Additionally, the company is now extending to Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Rajasthan.
With rising pressure from environmental, social and governance mandates, such as India’s Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting requirements and the European Union’s carbon abatement policies, C&I consumers are increasingly expected to disclose and reduce their carbon footprints. Many C&I companies are setting ambitious climate targets and are aiming for greater procurement of re-newables. As a result, CleanMax design solutions are tailored not just to reduce cost for clients, but also to assist them in meeting their decarbonisation goals.
Our approach begins with a detailed assessment of each client’s carbon intensity. Starting with site assessments, we assess whether rooftop solutions are viable or not, further moving on to the feasibil-ity study of group-captive versus open-access supply and finally topping up residual demand either through Indian Energy Exchange or virtual PPAs and contract-for-difference models. This not only helps clients reduce energy costs but also ensures that they are closer to their 100 per cent renewables targets.
Many C&I companies are setting ambitious climate targets and aiming for greater procurement of renewables.” Amit Sharma
Pradeep Verma
Serentica Renewables, the renewable arm of the Vedanta Group and part of Sterlite Power, began its commercial operations in late 2023. It has an operational portfolio of 600 MW, with over 4 GW under construction, across wind, solar and wind-solar hybrid projects.
The company’s projects are spread across Karnataka, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, and are also ex-panding to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. It provides hybrid so-lutions, combining solar, wind and BESS, as per the client’s specific demand patterns. We cater to both Vedanta Group clients as well as external industrial clients. For Hindustan Zinc Limited, a Vedanta Group company, we have undertaken a unique 500 MW RTC contract, which guarantees a minimum 50 per cent supply of contracted capacity across all blocks during the day. In order to supply the commit-ted power, the company scaled up its wind and solar generation and deployed 1 GWh of battery stor-age capacity.
“In the C&I renewables space, it is key to provide carefully designed and planned solutions to mitigate curtailment risks that can arise from excess generation.” Pradeep Verma
The company is also entering into long-term PPAs with external industrial clients. One such project in-volves 
supplying 75 MW under an annual contract that meets 70-75 per cent, and in some cases, 85 per cent of the client’s energy demand. These solutions leverage ISTS connectivity and reduce the overall power procurement costs.
This could prove to be particularly useful for clients operating their captive plants with procurement costs exceeding Rs 6 per kWh, as switching to hybrid ISTS models will help them optimise their pro-curement costs.
In the C&I renewables space, it is key to provide carefully designed and planned solutions, in a bid to mitigate curtailment risks that can arise from excess generation. Even minimal energy shortfalls, 2-3 per cent in some time slots, can necessitate power procurement from exchanges to supply to custom-ers, potentially impacting project economics.
