Power Grid Q3 Net down;to start Southern Grid ops after July

Electricity transmission utility Power Grid Corp, which today reported a drop in net profit at Rs 1,042 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, expects Southern Grid operations to start in second half of 2014.
"The Southern Grid has been recently integrated with the National Grid. A lot of experimenting has been done and currently trials are being carried out and we are also studying on how to make it a stable link.
"We expect the study to complete by June-July and the operations to start in full swing thereafter," Power Grid Chairman and Managing Director R N Nayak told reporters here.

The Raichur-Solapur 765KV single circuit transmission line (between Maharashtra & Karnataka) has been interconnected with the National Grid, thereby achieving the one nation - one grid - one frequency system, he said.
The Central PSU incurred a cost of Rs 815 crore for setting up the system.
Currently, the inter-regional transmission capacity between the west and south is 1,500 MW. With the construction of transmission lines between Maharashtra and Karnataka, the capacity is expected to increase to 5,000 MW.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 1,129 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last financial year, Power Grid said in a stock exchange filing.

The state-run firm's total income from operations rose to Rs 3,684.55 crore in the December quarter from Rs 3,368.93 crore in the year-ago period.
The company's finance cost, including borrowings, increased to Rs 787.35 crore from Rs 684.82 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal. Other operating income declined to Rs 1.26 crore from Rs 7.86 crore a year ago.
It has spent Rs 1,500 crore from over Rs 5,321 crore it raised through FPO last year for funding 27 projects. "We have already spent Rs 1,500 crore and have started work on a few projects. We will spend another Rs 600 crore in the coming weeks," Nayak said.

The firm will invest Rs 374.63 crore for establishing a Unified Real Time Dynamic State Measurement Project.
On fund raising plans, Nayak said, "our capex for FY15 is around Rs 22,000 crore. We will be raising the funds through a mix of domestic bonds and equity.