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| Edited By: Ateeq Shaikh |Source: DNA |Updated: Aug 06, 2018, 05:15 AM IST
As the Union government intervenes to pump life into stressed power projects, NTPC is looking forward to being a part of the larger solution, chairman and managing director Gurdeep Singh tells Ateeq Shaikh. Apart from acquiring good stressed assets, the public sector undertaking with 21,071 megawatt (mw) capacity under construction is eyeing operation and maintenance works for such thermal plants.
A total of 5 gw power generation capacity will be added during the ongoing fiscal. Our long-term corporate plan envisages a vision of becoming a 130 gw company by 2032. The strategy includes capacity addition through greenfield projects, expansion of existing stations, joint ventures and acquisition of stressed assets.
The entire 5,000 mw (5 gw or 4,880 mw) is conventional capacity addition. Renewable energy, if at all, will be an addition to this 5 gw. In this year, there is no scope of renewable power projects coming up.
Total capital expenditure of Rs 23,000 crore has been approved for this year. As per plans, 30% of this will come through internal accruals and the rest will be raised from the market by way of various options available, including domestic and foreign currency bonds or any other sources.
We had started with the model of cost-plus and that has not really worked. We are now looking at how to go forward and where to start; whether we have to invest and construct a plant or whether we can buy power from the developers. The latter is easier and much more economical. However, we want to get into renewable energy. We already have 4 gw capacity of wind (2 gw) and solar (2 gw).
We have smaller, old thermal units in Tanda (in Uttar Pradesh) and Talcher (in Odisha) that would be shut. Even Badarpur plant in Delhi will be shut in October this year. The total capacity of about 2,200 mw would be shut in the next two to three years.
Our power projects are not in stress. Let us see what can be acquired or not. We don’t have any plans as of now, but we will let you know whenever something is there. We don’t even have the outlook of how much we would add by buying these assets. We are very keen on bidding for the right asset. So far, we have not yet put any bid or expression of interest. There are different types of assets available in the market. There are around 10,000-12,000 mw of assets which are good, and an equal amount of assets that are not at all good. Some of the assets have problems such as availability of water, or being far from transportable areas. NTPC’s focus, as such, would be on those assets that are in a good shape but are just stuck in bad contracts. If you are having a good asset and you are having a bad contract, it is a real problem. We have to be careful as to which assets to look for and it should be a very transparent method. It has to be a bidding process. If it is coming through NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) or bankers are taking over and there is bidding, we will be happy to look at it.
We would be happy to take up operation and maintenance of these power plants under Project Sashakt. We would be able to manage the show for all the power projects under this project and anyone who comes to us.
Once the electricity demand picks up, all other issues get settled automatically. This one thing will take care of everything.
Peak load has always been changing. Peak load is different in each of the months. Talking about peak load during the day, nowadays, the peak load has come to 11 in the night. There is a huge changing pattern of consumption. Possibly, at night, people are switching on their air-conditioners, resulting in this.
There are good indicators that power demand is growing. If you look at July, the power demand growth was almost 7.50%, which is an optimistic scenario. It is not only that power is going into the houses that are electrified but the industry has also started picking up. There are early indications. For instance, demand for power from our high-cost plants such as Dadri (in Uttar Pradesh) and Mauda (in Maharashtra) is also improving.
We are looking at we can utilise the ash, and over a period of time, it can be a revenue stream. Cement consumption, too, would come down if fly ash gets utilised. As a country, we generate around 200 to 220 million tonne every year, of which NTPC generates 10 million tonne. We are encouraging everyone to utilise fly ash, be it road construction, mine filling, agriculture, etc. We are working with an agricultural university as fly ash increases the fertility of the soil.
For this fiscal, total coal requirement is expected to be 196.28 million tonne, which will be met through fuel supply agreements, bridge linkages, captive mines, e-auction, etc. Last year, coal mining was 2.68 million tonne; this year’s mining target is 6.27 million tonne. NTPC was allotted 10 coal blocks, with one of them being a joint venture. The total capacity will go to 100 million tonne and this also will be ramped up, approximately it will take about eight to ten years. We have sufficient coal. Currently, we are working on five captive coal blocks - Pakri Barwadih, Chatti Bariatu and Kerandari (in Jharkhand), Dulanga (in Odisha) and Talaipalli (in Chhattisgarh). These have total geological reserves of 3.8 billion tonne and mining capacity of 56 metric million tonne per annum.
We have already taken a decision that we would go for some percentage of imported coal. Very soon, there would be a tender floated to purchase imported coal. This would be for the plants in the coastal areas, where imported coal would work out to be cheaper. It could be for Simhadri (in Andhra Pradesh), Kudgi (in Karnataka) and other plants. A total of around 2.5 million tonne will be procured. Last to last year, we had almost stopped buying imported coal.
We have not received any formal communication yet on the government’s plan to sell its stake in NHPC as part of disinvestment target for the ongoing fiscal. However, any deal is a good deal if it is at a right price.
