Essar Power hits 49% power generation growth

On a m-o-m basis, generation jumped 57%.

Essar Power generated 49% more power in the fiscal and also added 165 MW capacity to its portfolio by commissioning one unit each at its Paradip and Hazira plants. The generation increased by 57% year-on-year in the quarter ending 31 March 2017.

With the commissioning of the second 135 MW unit of the 2x135 MW Hazira power plant in Gujarat, the project is now fully commissioned and operating on full load. The second 30 MW unit at the 4x30 MW Paradip power plant in Odisha was also commissioned in the fiscal. With this, half the targetted capacity of 120 MW for the Paradip power plant has been commissioned.

In the 2016-17 financial year, Essar Power’s Mahan plant resumed operations after a gap of 19 months. Operations restarted at the beginning of the financial year and have continued without interruption banking on e-auction coal provided by Coal India Limited. Essar Power MP Ltd, the company that operates the Mahan plant, procured over 3 million tonnes of coal through the e-auction route in FY 2016-17.

Essar Power’s operational capacity in India now stands at 4,755 MW. The company is currently developing the 1,200 MW Tori plant in Jharkhand and the remaining 2x30 MW units in Paradip. Essar Power’s total power generation capacity when these two plants come on stream will be 6,100 MW (including the 85 MW plant that is operational in Algoma, Canada).

Speaking on the performance, Mr KVB Reddy, CEO, Essar Power, said, "Almost 80 percent of our planned capacity of 6,100 MW is now operational with eight out of nine plants up and running. The initiatives of the ministries of Power and Coal in the last fiscal provided a fillip to the sector, helping us restart operations at the Mahan plant. Domestic coal auctions have helped mitigate the issue of coal availability. Though the sector is firmly on the path of revival, the Government of India must consider reducing interest rates that currently make most power projects financially unviable. Measures like the RBI’s 5/25 scheme will help optimise power generation costs.”