“A transition to clean energy is about making an investment in our future.” – Gloria Reuben, Singer, Actress & Producer
Fact Check 1: Since 1850, when temperatures began to be recorded, 18 of the warmest years have been recorded in the last 2 decades.
Fact Check 2: A half of degree of warming from 1.5 degrees to 2 degrees makes a world of difference. It means:
- A total wipe-out of the world’s coral reefs
- A ten-fold increase in Arctic ice-free summers
- Far greater species loss
- More heat waves for tens of millions of people
- Increased water scarcity in some of the world’s most unstable regions
Fact Check 3: 1 in 5 CEOs and 1 in 3 Investors is concerned about the effect of climate change on his or her organization’s growth prospects.
Climate change is a reality we are battling and one firm leading its movement in India, a country where over 65% of power is still generated through conventional polluting sources like coal, is Fourth Partner Energy.
Founded in 2010, Fourth Partner Energy is an award-winning entity that has managed to grab the eyeballs of the business fraternity by evolving as one of the largest distributed solar companies in India with over 1700 solar installations across 23 states in India. The company is an epitome of the new paradigm that empowers businesses for positive transformation in society, one which is ‘responsible’, ‘sustainable’ and yet profitable. The company believes that in today’s world, it is vital for businesses to create a better, safer, and healthier environment.
Distributed solar industry presents India an ideal opportunity to lead the shift towards a decentralized and decarburized energy economy along with creating new opportunities to balance its ‘Energy Trilemma’ – Energy Security, Energy Affordability, and Environmental Sustainability. Fourth Partner Energy stands committed to being the torchbearers for initiating this clean movement.
Fourth Partner Energy has created a successful business platform that enables clients, mostly large private and government commercial and industrial entities, to drive 20-60% savings in energy bills by adopting solar at zero capital costs without stressing their liabilities through its flexible financing options. It further strengthens its clientele to gain greater control over energy costs and in achieving their sustainability goals. Over the past eight years, the company has developed a unique proposition of being a full services company with complete in-house capabilities across Financing, Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Operation & Maintenance of critical solar infrastructure. With its team of over 250 members spread across 10 cities in India, Fourth Partner Energy continues to outperform its own milestones every other day!
Fourth Partner was ranked as the 2nd largest EPC Company by Bridge to India.
Leading Lights of Fourth Partner Energy
Saif Dhorajiwala, Vivek Subramanian & Vikas Saluguti are the three founding pillars that bring in years of acumen and professionalism in the business. Under their aegis, the firm was created with a strong ethos of making a positive impact on society rather than just focusing upon profit-making and generating revenues. In 2010, the trio observed the mismatch between the rates at which demand for power was increasing versus the increase in supply. This was supplemented with the ever-increasing prices in grid power. At the same time, they had also spotted the improvement in solar technology and sensed the prices of solar would fall drastically to a point where solar would serve as a resourceful substitute to grid; Fourth Partner Energy was thus conceptualized. The founders believe, the ultimate pillars that complete and cement this foundation are the customers, suppliers, employees, investors and other stakeholders. Living by its name, the ‘fourth’ pillar is the focus of all its business activities.
Saif and Vivek play a pivotal role in stirring various operations at Fourth Partner Energy. While Saif is responsible for managing procurement, projects, sales, asset management, and operations & maintenance, Vivek handles corporate strategy, fundraising, FP&A, risk & pricing, quality, new initiatives, human resources and IT.
The founders have been recognized amongst India’s Most Powerful Solar Industry Business Leaders by Solar Quarter for 2017 and 2018. Recently, in December 2018, they were also awarded as Best Green Leaders of the Year by Times Now.
Distinctive In-house Services
Energy Security | Energy Affordability | Environment Sustainability
Fourth Partner Energy provides best-in-class distributed solar solutions including tin and RCC rooftop solar solutions, ground mounted, solar carports and raised structures. The company offers complete in-house services across the entire spectrum covering financing, engineering, procurement, construction, and operations & maintenance of critical solar infrastructure. This gives them control over the quality of the plant executed, timelines of execution, and cost of construction and ensures plant efficiency in the long-run which together culminates into delivering one of the lowest total costs of ownership to clients.
Empowering rural India, the company has touched the lives of a thousand farmer’s families through its solar pump solutions, facilitated financial inclusion of nearly 50,000 people by installing retrofitted solar systems in over 350 rural bank branches and is driving rural electrification through mini-grid solutions and other stand-alone projects.
The company has also designed a unique beneficiary program – “Power@1” that helps corporates to channelize their CSR funds towards electrification of grass root level non-profit organization. This program enables the beneficiaries to avail regular source of power at a flat rate of 1 rupee per unit. The key principles of the program are designed around sustainability, measurability and accountability.
Achieving Milestones
Having raised USD 70 million from The Rise Fund, a global impact investment fund, the company is armored with the financial muscle to execute large multi-MW projects.
For the company, the past year has been monumental and a year of ‘firsts’ in many ways.
- Effectively commissioned the phase-1 (a 6.7 MWp ground-mounted solar plant) – India’s largest distributed solar plant for a single client.
- First Lithium-Ion Battery backed micro-grid system successfully commissioned in a village.
- Launch of its Power@1 program. Soon after the successful launch of the first project at a government school, the same sponsor decided to extend funding to support another project.
- Launch of its first mobile project where it installed battery backed solar project in a cold storage van.
- The company has been bestowed with countless, some of which include Best Green Organization of the Year (ET Now), Best Green Leaders of the Year, and Consumer Choice Award for Rooftop Solar (RESCO) and Monitoring Services, SME Growth Leadership Award – Company of the Yearand Techtors Award– Tech Companies to Watch out For.
Standout in a High-Tech World
Fourth Partner Energy is at the forefront of technology and innovation in implementing highly efficient distributed solar solutions.
Unlike the competition, which largely relies upon standard third-party apps, the company has developed an in-house app which is used by their monitoring team and clients as well to track real-time performance of the plants. Alongside detecting the cases of malfunctioning, it also detects the cases of under-performance on a real-time basis. This helps the entity to identify and resolves the problems at an early stage.
The company has also developed products such as ‘Zero-feed In System’ which prevents any relay of power into the grid in places of installation where net-metering is not allowed. Their DG (diesel generator) protection / optimization system works on a similar underlying algorithm and ensures no power is fed into the DG. It also ensures the genset runs at an optimum load as per its specific fuel consumption curve such that its fuel efficiency is not affected.
On the engineering side, Fourth Partner has developed a non-penetrative technology to mount its solar systems over tin-roofs. Through this technique, the company can mount panels without puncturing the roof which keeps the roof’s longevity intact. It also uses ballast solutions for RCC roof. The two solutions help in reducing the installation to almost half as compared to a regular methodology.
Customer-Centric Business Philosophy
The company’s customer-centric approach has helped them earn over twenty-five percent of repeat orders. Apart from the direct benefits of immediate savings in power costs and adding to the client’s sustainability goals, the company is delivering the lowest total cost of ownership to clients (a function of unit savings and power generated over the life of the plant).
Fourth Partner Energy has developed an in-house platform to provide a seemingly hassle-free client engagement experience. ‘Solar Connect’ is a platform that enables a two-way communication between the client and the firm and ensures ease of access to data and transparency of process. The client can access design drawing, proposals, track updates of project execution and seek clarification from the concerned person on a real-time basis through the platform. All the records of sales and progress of project execution are captured in the platform.
Empowering Nation for the Future
Fourth Partner Energy is investing a large amount of money towards building a healthy portfolio of solar assets under the OPEX model. The company is planning to expand beyond distributed solar solutions and aspires to evolve into a full energy management company. The company is optimistic about crafting an operational niche through which it can manage the client’s entire energy portfolio. The firm is working on solutions such as energy efficiency, electric vehicle charging, energy storage, smart grids and much more!
Marching forward with a positive approach, the company also plans to tap the rural areas of the country in a big way, an opportunity that offers to serve nearly 300 million people who still don’t have access to a reliable source of power for their commercial use. Fourth Partner is also venturing overseas and is tapping the South-East Asian and Middle-East markets.
By the end of FY-19, Fourth Partner Energy’s work will have created approx. 2500 direct and indirect job opportunities. It has helped India to reduce its dependence on coal by approx. 100,000 tons per year, and carbon emissions by approx. 210,000 tons per year. These figures are equivalent to planting approx. 9.5 million mature trees. The company has termed this breakthrough achievement as #EnergyforGood.
Source :-The 10 Most Innovative Green Energy Providers in India
