BPCL on track to become a net-zero company by 2040: Shelly Abraham

The head of renewable energy at BPCL spoke to DH about the company's green energy targets

With focus turning to green energy even traditional players are jumping on the bandwagon. One of the country’s largest oil and gas companies, the public sector giant - Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) - is walking in this direction. Shelly Abraham, Head - Renewable Energy at the company, spoke to DH’s Shakshi Jain in Bengaluru, about the company’s journey towards renewable energy to offset emissions from refining operations.

Edited excerpts.

How is BPCL moving towards green energy?

We are an oil company in the fossil fuels sector but now energy transition is happening in the world. There is a requirement from the decarbonisation point of view. So, like all the major oil companies in the world, we also have started seriously looking at these two aspects - one is decarbonisation and second is from the energy transition point of view. Renewable energy is a key component on both counts. We’ve also declared our aspiration to become a net-zero company by 2040. So, to start with, we have started a separate vertical within our organisation, a year ago, to have a clear focus on renewable energy.

What is your roadmap for getting to this net-zero target by 2040?

We have set ourselves short term as well as long term targets. Our short term target is to build a portfolio of around 1 gigawatt by 2025-26 and build a portfolio of around 10 gigawatt by 2040, which will help us in achieving our net-zero goals as well. So, we have started doing small projects, wherever we have spareable bands within the BPCL system. But going forward we’re looking to do bigger projects. We’re discussing with the state governments of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. We’re focusing on these 2-3 states because of some strategic requirements, because Bina (Refinery) - one of our major consumption points - is in Madhya Pradesh and in Rajasthan the solar radiation levels are amongst the highest.

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We are on track as far as our target is concerned. In addition to these, we have also prepared a clear roadmap on how to achieve this net-zero objective by 2040 with the help of a consultant, and we’ve identified what are the major solutions involved in that. We‘ve started doing a techno-commercial analysis of the implementability of the solutions also.

Which sources of green energy are you leveraging to achieve your targets?

We’re looking at all the options. Primarily when you talk about renewables today, we’re talking about solar, we're talking about wind, then there is battery pumped storage, mini hydro, nuclear. All those things are part of the renewable solutions, but we’re primarily looking at solar and wind. Pumped hydro is more of a storage option than a generating option.

How do you plan to go about expansion - are you looking to collaborate with like-minded parties?

We have multiple options when you want to set up a new project or a facility. So, we would evaluate it on a case-to-case basis. We’re not looking at a very broad based strategic partnership. We would probably be looking at a project-wise SPV (special purpose vehicle) model. So we’re open to all the options and exploring all the options.