This Navratna company to invest Rs 43,000 crore in power, mining projects

The company signed a JV agreement with Coal India to set up 5000 Mw of solar and thermal projects. These projects are expected to commence between 2023 and 2027.

NLC India, a Navratna company under the ministry of coal, is planning to invest over Rs 43,000 crore in various power and mining projects.

The new projects will add 3,920 Mw of power, including 1,000 Mw solar power, and 11.50 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of mining capacity to the company.

In 2019-20, the company added 1,209 Mw (total) and 17.5 Mw (solar) till June 30, 2020, and retired 400 Mw to its installed capacity.

With this addition and retirement, the total installed capacity is now 4661.06 Mw.

The proposed new projects include a 3X800 Mw power plant in Odisha, a 2X800 Mw thermal power plant, 2X660 Mw plant in Neyveli, 1,000 Mw solar power project, and an 11.50 MTPA mining project in Neyveli, according to the company’s annual report.

The company signed a joint venture agreement with Coal India to set up 5,000 Mw of solar and thermal projects.

These projects are expected to commence operations between 2023 and 2027.

Commissioning of the entire 709 Mw solar power projects is in Tamil Nadu.

With the completion of these projects, the company has become the first central public sector enterprise (CPSE) in the country to achieve solar power generation capacity of more than 1 Gw.

At the 20 Mw solar power project in Andaman & Nicobar island, 2.5 Mw was commissioned in December 2018 and the balance 17 Mw was commissioned on June 30, 2020.

Meanwhile, the firm has decided to put 500 Mw capacity projects and 7 MTPA mining projects on hold.

The power projects were supposed to be set up in Rajasthan, while the mining projects were supposed to come up in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan.

The company did not disclose the reason for this.

On performance, during the year, total power generation (gross) of 219,22.98 million units (MU) and power export of 18,840.84 MU have been achieved in spite of power surrender of 19,45.71 MU witnessed from state discoms.

The average plant load factor of the thermal plants during the year 2019-20 was 70.22 per cent against the national average of 55.99 per cent.  In 2019-20, discoms had surrendered 1,945.71 MU against 1,891.47 MU in 2018-19.

Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters