NTPC accounts for nearly 30 per cent of the total power generated in the country and intends to consolidate its strong hold on the power sector by adding fresh capacity over the next three years.
By the end of 2016-17, India’s largest power company plans to add 14,000 MW to its total installed capacity of 42,500 MW which includes a capacity addition of nearly 10,000 MW in the last three years—4,170 MW in 2012-13, 2,820 MW in 2011-12 and 2,490 MW in 2010-11. This is expected to enable the company to become a 128,000-MW power utility in coming years.
NTPC will utilise money raised through its recent bond issue to fund capital expenditure and refinancing to meet the debt requirement of ongoing projects.
Revealing the power major’s plans in Delhi recently, Dr. Arup Roy Choudhury, Chairman and Managing Director, NTPC Ltd, said that the public sector utility had registered a growth of 4.49 per cent of power in this fiscal compared to the last fiscal. Last year, NTPC-run power plants produced 222.068 billion units which have increased to 232.028 billion units.
The company’s coal-fired thermal power stations also registered a growth of 6.67 per cent. In the last fiscal, the production from coal stations was 199.054 units which has reached 212.39 units this fiscal. NTPC also notched higher plant load factor over other power producers: PLF at the NTPC-run coal power stations on an average was 87.63 per cent against the national average of 69.93 per cent.
NTPC is currently executing 19,500 MW even as it is preparing to place orders for the procurement of power equipment for 5,000 MW capacity. Some of the new projects proposed by the company are Tanda, Uttar Pradesh (1,320 MW), Darlipali, Odisha (1,600 MW) and North Karanpura, Jharkhand (1,980 MW).
In recent developments, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dedicated NTPC’s 2,980-MW Rajiv Gandhi Sipat STPS to the nation and also laid the foundation stone, by remote, of the 1,600 MW Stage-I of Lara STPP in Lara village in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh. This project will have two units of 800 MW in stage I and an ultimate installed capacity of 4,000 MW.
In October this year, NTPC increased its total installed capacity to 41,684 MW following the commissioning of Unit-VI of the 500-MW of Rihand STPP. With this, the total installed capacity of Rihand STPP has become 3,000 MW (6×500). Power generated from Rihand is benefiting the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Chandigarh.
Today, NTPC operates 15 coal-based and seven gas-based power stations as well as seven joint venture and subsidiary power projects across India.
