Essar Power generation up 49 per cent at 11.33 bn units in FY17

New Delhi: Essar Power produced 49 per cent more electricity at 11.33 billion units (BUs) last fiscal ended March 31, as against 7.63 BUs in the previous year. The generation was up 57 per cent for the January-March quarter of 2016-17 at 2.92 BUs compared to 1.86 BUs in the year-ago period, Essar Power said in a statement.

It said 165 MW generation capacity has been added by commissioning one unit each at its Paradip and Hazira plants. 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 2016-17, Essar Powers 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. Essar Power MP Ltd, which operates the Mahan plant, procured over 3 million tonnes of coal through the e-auction route in 2016-17.

Essar Powers 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 Powers 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).

Essar Power CEO KVB Reddy said: "Almost 80 per cent 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."

He said Domestic coal auctions have helped mitigate the issue of coal availability. Reddy said the government should 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."

Essar Power Ltd is a private sector power producer with over 20 years of operating track record. It owns power plants in India and Canada with a total planned generation capacity of 6,100 MW, of which 4,840 MW is operational. Of the total operational capacity, 3,240 MW is coal-based, while 1,600 MW is gas-based.

The operating plants in India are at Mahan in Madhya Pradesh, Hazira, Salaya & Vadinar in Gujarat and Paradeep in Orissa. A 1,200 MW coal based power plant at Tori in Jharkhand state is under development.