An Adani Group company has emerged as the lowest bidder for importing 4 million tonnes of coal for the country's largest power producer NTPC Ltd.
Sources privy to the development told Business Line that NTPC had floated a tender in November for importing 4 mt coal in 2011-12 to meet its current requirements.
The public sector company had received seven bids for procurement of imported coal for its power plants. Sources, however, declined to share the names of other bidders.
NTPC's requirement
NTPC is seeking 1 mt imported coal for its Talcher Thermal and Talcher Kaniha power plants, 1 mt for its Farakka and Kahalgaon plants, 0.5 mt for Simhadri and Ramagumdam plants, 0.8 mt for Dadri, Rihand, Singrauli, Tanda, Unchchar and Vindhyachal plants, and 0.7 mt for it Korba and Sipat plants.
Supply and pricing
The techno-commercial bids were opened in January. NTPC is looking for long-term contracts for sourcing coal to ensure that the company has secure fuel supplies for its projects as well as protecting itself from volatility in pricing.
Capacity addition
It has plants to add 4,320 MW capacity this financial year (2011-12). The company's current total installed capacity is 36,014 MW.
For the current fiscal, NTPC's coal requirement is about 164 mt. Of the total, about 114 mt is estimated to come from Coal India.
Currently, 90 per cent of the company's fuel requirement is met domestically via its long-term contract with Coal India. NTPC meets the remaining 10-15 per cent of its needs through imported coal, which is also expensive.
Shortage in domestic fuel supply has affected NTPC's generation productivity by 10-15 cent annually. The company, at present, has 15 coal-based, seven gas-based and six joint venture power stations and plans to be a 128,000 MW company by 2032.