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Informist, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024

By Sunil Raghu & Apratim Sarkar

AHMEDABAD – Hydropower company NHPC Ltd. hopes to operationalise the Teesta V power plant in Sikkim by December 2025. The plant, situated in the Teesta basin, has been shut since October 2023 due to flash floods, leading to a loss of nearly INR 4.5 billion so far. In a post-earnings analyst call, the management said that while insurance companies would compensate the company to the tune of INR 4.1 billion, it has been left with a loss of INR 400 million to INR 500 million so far. By the time it can commission the plant, some 14 months on, the company's total loss owing to its shutdown may reach INR 4.5 billion to INR 5.0 billion.

The Teesta V power station, with a design energy output capacity of 26 billion units per annum, generated 1.93 billion units of power in Jul-Sept last year, compared to nothing this year.

Other than the Teesta V power plant, flash floods, high silting, and less inflow of water and outages saw NHPC achieve 11% lower generation of 15.01 billion units in the first half of 2024-25 (Apr-Mar), compared to 16.80 billion units in Apr-Sept a year ago. The plant availability factor for Apr-Sept was lower at 82.68% compared to 91.93% in the same period last year. For Jul-Sept, this was 84.87%, compared to 89.78% last year.

This was reflected in the hydroelectricity generation costs in Jul-Sept which fell 21.1% on year to INR 3.13 billion, from INR 3.97 billion a year ago. The company's finance costs in the September quarter jumped up 137% to INR 2.98 billion, from INR 1.26 billion a year ago. This put pressure on the company's net profit for the September quarter, which fell 37.4% to INR 9.05 billion, compared to INR 14.47 billion a year ago.

In the concall, the management shared updates on various projects that it is currently undertaking to increase its installed capacity. These include the Subansiri lower hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh, where it has spent INR 220.27 billion in costs and completed 94% of the physical work. It hopes to commission three units by March 2025 and one unit by May 2026. It has also spent nearly INR 118.79 billion of the estimated INR 121.60 billion on Parbati 2 hydroelectric project in Himachal Pradesh so far, and hopes to commission it by February 2025.

The company, through its subsidiary Chenab Valley Power Projects Ltd., is also executing three projects in the Chenab basin of Jammu and Kashmir. Estimated to cost INR 81.12 billion, the company has spent INR 50.92 billion on the project so far, completing nearly 60% of the physical work. The company hopes to commission these projects by September 2026.

As an intermediary nodal agency for procurement of power sold by solar power generators, the company has till date tendered around 9,000 megawatt capacity, of which it has signed power purchase agreements for 7,000 MW. The management said it is in touch with distribution companies to finalise its power purchase agreements for the remaining power.

On the merger of its wholly-owned subsidiary Jal Power Corp. Ltd. with itself, the company management said the first motion application has been filed with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, and it expects to complete the merger by December 2025. On Friday, shares of NHPC ended 2.6% lower at INR 82.35 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

Edited by Ashish Shirke

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