Govt’s 24x7 power vision will boost sector’s growth: NTPC
29 Aug 2014 2:46 AM IST
Pinning hopes on the new government’s initiatives, NTPC on Wednesday said plans to provide round-the-clock electricity to every household in the country translates to robust growth opportunities amid challenges faced by the power sector. However, the country’s largest power producer has also flagged concerns about the poor health of state electricity distribution companies.
Addressing shareholders on Wednesday, NTPC Chairman and Managing Director Arup Roy Choudhury said that the new Government’s strong focus on tapping all possible sources also opens up new business opportunities for the company.
‘The new government’s vision of providing 24X7 power to each household translates into robust growth opportunities amid challenges for the sector,’ he said at the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). Among others, he said that the creation of Telangana provides further opportunities to set up new power projects. NTPC has the mandate to set up a 4,000 mw power plant in the new state. State-owned NTPC has an installed generation capacity of 43,128 mw.
The utility is also looking to increase its green energy portfolio and currently, it has an installed renewable capacity of 95 mw. With regard to challenges, NTPC chief mentioned high Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses as well as poor financial health of state distribution companies as concerns.
‘Several measures have been introduced by the government which include R-APDRP scheme focused to reduce the AT&C losses to below 15 per cent level,’ he said. To help cash-strapped state discoms, the government is already working on a Financial Restructuring Plan (FRP).
‘Some states like Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, etc have already started implementation of FRP. There has also been strategic rethink about the effectiveness of FRP and the ways and means to make such measure really effective,’ Choudhury added. Noting that India has one of the lowest annual per capita power consumption of 917.18 Kwh, he said that demand, supply and consumption trends would be key to sectoral growth.
Facing shortage in domestic fuel supplies, state-owned NTPC plans to import 17 million metric tonnes of coal this fiscal which is higher than the quantity purchased last financial year. The country’s largest power producer plans to add 1,798 MW generation in the current financial year ending March 2015. Roy Choudhury said that the total coal requirement is estimated to be 177 MMT for this fiscal. ‘Out of this 147 MMT is expected against coal supply agreements and 3 MMT through bilateral MOU/E-auction. The gap of 27 MMT domestic coal is to be mitigated through 17 MMT of imported coal,’ he said at the AGM.
During the 2013-14 period, NTPC consumed 158.57 mmt of coal, with imports accounting for 10.39 mmt. Currently, the utility has an installed capacity of 43,128 mw. Last fiscal, NTPC added a generation capacity of 1,835 mw.
‘Ten coal blocks have been awarded to your company having geological reserves of 5 billion tonnes and production potential of 100 MTPA (Million Tonnes Per Annum), which can cater to substantial requirement of your company’s generation capacity. Your company is making best efforts to extract these reserves as soon as possible to augment generation,’ Roy Choudhury said.
Addressing shareholders on Wednesday, NTPC Chairman and Managing Director Arup Roy Choudhury said that the new Government’s strong focus on tapping all possible sources also opens up new business opportunities for the company.
‘The new government’s vision of providing 24X7 power to each household translates into robust growth opportunities amid challenges for the sector,’ he said at the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). Among others, he said that the creation of Telangana provides further opportunities to set up new power projects. NTPC has the mandate to set up a 4,000 mw power plant in the new state. State-owned NTPC has an installed generation capacity of 43,128 mw.
The utility is also looking to increase its green energy portfolio and currently, it has an installed renewable capacity of 95 mw. With regard to challenges, NTPC chief mentioned high Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses as well as poor financial health of state distribution companies as concerns.
‘Several measures have been introduced by the government which include R-APDRP scheme focused to reduce the AT&C losses to below 15 per cent level,’ he said. To help cash-strapped state discoms, the government is already working on a Financial Restructuring Plan (FRP).
‘Some states like Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, etc have already started implementation of FRP. There has also been strategic rethink about the effectiveness of FRP and the ways and means to make such measure really effective,’ Choudhury added. Noting that India has one of the lowest annual per capita power consumption of 917.18 Kwh, he said that demand, supply and consumption trends would be key to sectoral growth.
Facing shortage in domestic fuel supplies, state-owned NTPC plans to import 17 million metric tonnes of coal this fiscal which is higher than the quantity purchased last financial year. The country’s largest power producer plans to add 1,798 MW generation in the current financial year ending March 2015. Roy Choudhury said that the total coal requirement is estimated to be 177 MMT for this fiscal. ‘Out of this 147 MMT is expected against coal supply agreements and 3 MMT through bilateral MOU/E-auction. The gap of 27 MMT domestic coal is to be mitigated through 17 MMT of imported coal,’ he said at the AGM.
During the 2013-14 period, NTPC consumed 158.57 mmt of coal, with imports accounting for 10.39 mmt. Currently, the utility has an installed capacity of 43,128 mw. Last fiscal, NTPC added a generation capacity of 1,835 mw.
‘Ten coal blocks have been awarded to your company having geological reserves of 5 billion tonnes and production potential of 100 MTPA (Million Tonnes Per Annum), which can cater to substantial requirement of your company’s generation capacity. Your company is making best efforts to extract these reserves as soon as possible to augment generation,’ Roy Choudhury said.
Next Story
