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| APGenco setting up 21 power plants |
| CH Prashanth Reddy / Chennai/ Hyderabad Jul 06, 2009, 00:41 IST |
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Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation Limited (Genco) has embarked upon an ambitious plan of setting up 21 power plants over the period of next five years. The projects, having a combined capacity of 15,900 Mw, involve an investment of Rs 80,000 crore.
Of the 21 power projects, 11 are in various stages of execution. The ongoing projects, estimated to cost Rs 25,000 crore, will have a total generating capacity of 4,363 Mw. These include the Rs 8,500-crore 1,600 Mw Krishnapatnam power plant and 1,100 Mw Kakatiya thermal power plant to be executed in two stages.
“We have achieved financial closure for all the ongoing projects, which will be executed over the next three years,” Genco finance director, D Prabhakar Rao, told Business Standard adding that AP was going to be a power surplus state a few years down the line.
Even before the completion of the ongoing projects, Genco is taking up 10 new projects, estimated to cost Rs 55,000 crore, at the instance of chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. The new projects include the Rs 6,000-crore 2100 Mw gas-based power plant in Karimnagar, Rs 16,500-crore 4,000 Mw ultra mega power project at Vodarevu and Rs 4,500 crore 900 Mw hydel power plant at Polavaram.
Rao said establishing new plants was not a problem with financial institutions coming forward to fund the projects even to an extent of 100 per cent. “In fact , all our projects so far, except the Krishnapatnam power plant, have been financed with 100 per cent debt,” he said. For the Krishnapatnam project, the state government has provided Rs 100 crore towards equity of the project.
According to Rao, 100 per cent debt component will not affect the viability of the projects as electricity regulator is allowing return on capital employed at a rate of 14 per cent. The tariff rates will be fixed accordingly. Hence, financial institutions have no hesitation in funding the projects.
Genco, a state government undertaking, has been making profits for the past five years and has accumulated Rs 1,000 crore through internal resources, which could be invested as equity in some of the new projects, Rao said.
The power situation in AP is stated to be easing up with the start of supply of gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin by Reliance Industries Limited. Around 2,000 Mw of capacity, which has been lying idle for want of gas, is now being utilised. On its part, Genco has also added 1,126 Mw to its existing installed capacity of 7,588 Mw.
Following this, the total installed power generating capacity in the state had gone up to 13,186 Mw. As against this, the peak load consumption witnessed so far was 8.700 Mw.
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