REC Limited is fundamentally a government-built financing engine for India’s entire electricity system - from the power plant to the household socket - and it now channels that same approach into ports, highways, and metro rails. It was created in 1969 to electrify rural pump-sets for the Green Revolution, and over five decades it has evolved from a rural wiring agency into a ‘Maharatna’ infrastructure bank that acts as the Ministry of Power’s go-to partner for its biggest schemes. The recurring pattern is this: REC lends at scale to state electricity boards and infrastructure developers, funds itself cheaply because the government stands behind it, and simultaneously runs the national programmes that create its own loan demand - a closed loop of policy, credit, and project execution. # Business segments Four engines that form a closed loop - a power-sector lending core that generates nearly all the income, a project-execution arm that feeds it transmission deals, a training institute that supplies the skilled people who run the assets, and a new infrastructure-lending leg that extends the same model to ports, highways, and metros. ## 1. Power-sector lending: the balance-sheet engine that finances India’s grid **REC earns its living by borrowing at sovereign-adjacent rates and lending to every link in the electricity chain - generation, transmission, and distribution - with the state sector making up 86% of its loan book.** - **Lends across the entire value chain** - the loan book of roughly Rs. 5.82 lakh crore is spread across conventional generation (27%), renewable energy (12%), transmission (8%), distribution (40%), and infrastructure (10%), so repayment does not depend on any single technology or geography. - **The state is its customer and its backstop** - 86% of the portfolio is to state-sector borrowers, and the top 10 accounts - led by Tamil Nadu’s generation and distribution company at about 7% of total assets - have never produced a non-performing loan. - **Funded like a sovereign** - REC’s domestic credit rating is AAA from all four major agencies, and its international ratings (Baa3/BBB-/BBB+) match India’s sovereign ceiling, which lets it issue bonds at rates about 19 basis points cheaper than comparable public-sector peers. - **The government schemes are its origination pipeline** - as the nodal agency for flagship programmes like the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS, a Rs. 3.03 lakh crore outlay) and the PM Surya Ghar rooftop solar scheme, REC is positioned to finance the very projects it helps design and monitor. - **Asset quality is built into the structure** - gross non-performing assets stand at 1.06% with a 77% provision cover, and 96% of the book sits in Stage-1, meaning the loans are performing and require only a 0.86% provision. ## 2. RECPDCL: the project-delivery arm that turns policy into transmission lines **A wholly owned subsidiary that does not just lend for projects - it builds them, bids them out, and transfers them, creating a pipeline of transmission assets that REC itself can finance.** - **Bid process coordinator for the national grid** - RECPDCL is the government’s chosen agency to run the tariff-based competitive bidding for independent transmission projects; it incorporates a special-purpose vehicle for each project, runs the auction, and then hands the winning SPV to the successful bidder. - **65 projects transferred, more in the queue** - transmission projects worth over Rs. 84,500 crore have already been handed to developers including Power Grid, Adani Energy Solutions, and Tata Power, with new SPVs incorporated throughout FY26 for projects in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh (D5 p.39, D10-D49). - **Also builds what it does not bid out** - RECPDCL directly implements smart-meter rollouts (7.45 lakh meters installed in Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, and Chandigarh), runs the National Feeder Monitoring System covering roughly 2.06 lakh feeders across 30 states, and is constructing India’s highest transmission line at 5,500 metres in Ladakh. - **A standalone business in its own right** - the subsidiary earned a profit after tax of Rs. 261.65 crore on income of Rs. 551.57 crore in FY25, with a net worth of Rs. 738.19 crore. ## 3. Infrastructure and logistics lending: the same playbook, new sectors **Since 2022, REC has been permitted to lend up to a third of its book to non-power infrastructure - metros, ports, highways, airports, and city gas - using the same low-cost funding and government relationships.** - **A mandate, not an experiment** - the government amended REC’s Memorandum of Association in October 2022, explicitly authorising lending to logistics and infrastructure, and the company can allocate up to 33% of its loan portfolio to these sectors. - **Already 10% of the book** - infrastructure and logistics loans reached a tenth of the total portfolio by September 2025, with nine projects sanctioned in FY25 alone for a combined Rs. 43,239.44 crore. - **Sector scope is deliberately broad** - REC is financing roads, airports, educational institutions, hospitals, steel and refinery electro-mechanical works, and is signing an MoU with the Ministry of Shipping to enter the maritime sector. ## 4. RECIPMT: the training institute that supplies the industry’s skilled workforce **A 45-year-old power-sector training academy that has trained over 68,000 engineers and managers - including 1,936 executives from 102 countries - ensuring the utilities REC lends to have the people to run the assets.** - **The industry’s classroom** - since 1979, RECIPMT has run 3,114 training programmes for engineers and managers from generation, transmission, and distribution companies, with 6,168 participants trained in FY25 alone. - **A diplomatic tool as well as a domestic one** - as a partner institute with the Ministry of External Affairs, it has trained executives from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe under India’s technical cooperation programme, extending Indian power-sector practices globally. - **Accredited by the regulator** - the Central Electricity Authority recognises RECIPMT, and it serves as the nodal agency for the national training programme for distribution-company employees under government schemes. # Group structure and partners **REC sits inside a government-controlled group that is about to merge into the country’s largest power financier, with a subsidiary and a joint venture that extend its reach into project execution and energy efficiency.** - **RECPDCL is the wholly owned project subsidiary** - it handles bid coordination, smart-meter installation, and transmission-line construction, and it incorporates the project SPVs that are eventually transferred to winning bidders. - **EESL is the energy-efficiency joint venture** - REC holds a 22.18% stake alongside NTPC, Power Grid, and PFC in Energy Efficiency Services Limited, which has distributed nearly 37 crore LED bulbs under the UJALA programme and installed over 1.19 crore LED streetlights across India. - **A GIFT City subsidiary was planned** - REC had obtained RBI’s no-objection certificate to set up a wholly owned finance company in Gujarat’s IFSC for international lending and investment, though regulatory approvals were still pending as of FY24.