Vedanta to raise India power capacity to 10k Mw in a year

Company hopeful of bringing 3 operation ready projects on stream shortly, completing its Rs 50,000 cr power investment cycle set in motion 5 yrs back

London-listed metals and mining conglomerate Vedanta Resources Plc expects its operational power generation capacity in India to jump by half to 10,000 Mw within a year. The $15-billion group is hopeful of bringing three operation-ready projects on stream shortly, completing its Rs 50,000-crore power investment cycle set in motion five years back.

The largest private sector power generator in the country has a current capacity of 6,500 Mw running on ground.

“Over this, we will commission our 1,980 Mw Talwandi Sabo project in Punjab in a few months for which fuel supply agreement (FSA) was signed recently with Coal India. Also, the 1,200 Mw Balco project will come on stream in Chhattisgarh apart from a 210 Mw plant at Lanjigarh in Odisha,” a senior company executive told Business Standard.

He added the group had so far invested Rs 1 lakh crore in India, including the power investment since 2007. Interestingly, except for the 1,980-Mw Talwandi project, the entire 10,000-Mw capacity has been set up by billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta for in-house or captive use to fire its Aluminium, Copper and Zinc smelters across states.

Vedanta’s current operational power capacity includes the 2,400-Mw captive project at Jharsuguda in Odisha. The project was linked to the Rampia and Dipside of Rampia coal blocks allocated jointly to Vedanta subsidiary Sterlite Energy, Arcelor Mittal, Reliance Energy, GMR, Lanco and Navabharat Power Ventures.

After the recent exit of Arcelor Mittal, Vedanta is operating the plant on linkage from CIL subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL). In addition, the company is running 810 Mw capacity for its Balco Aluminium project in Chhattisgarh and 474 Mw capacity at Hindustan Zinc, another subsidiary, projects in Rajasthan.

The company is currently eyeing participation in the upcoming auctioning of captive coal blocks by the government apart from the tariff-based competitive bidding for two ultra mega power projects (UMPP) in Odisha and Tamil Nadu. The government has finalised the coal block allocation policy and invited bids for the two UMPPs.