Ghatampur project to add ₹500 crore to NLC India’s net profit 

NLC India, the government-owned coal and lignite mining and power producer, expects to start commercial operation from the first of the three units of its new Ghatampur thermal power plant in Uttar Pradesh, on July 31. The ‘commercial operation date’ (the date from which the power purchase agreement period starts) for the second and third units is expected to be in November this year and March 2025.

• Also read: Govt holding in NLC falls 7%, co plans open tender for $600m ECB

Therefore, the financial year 2025-26 will be the 1,980 MW Ghatampur thermal power station’s first full year of operations. NLC India’s Chairman and Managing Director, Motupalli Prasanna Kumar, the sales of electricity from the Ghatampur station will add ₹500-600 crore to the company’s net profit.

In 2023-24, NLC India achieved a turnover of ₹10,518 crore and made a net profit of ₹1,846 crore.

Unit-I was connected to the grid in November. When asked why there was such a delay in CoD after synchronizing with the grid, Kumar told businessline that the delay was due to getting all the ‘balance of plant’ (mainly, ash and coal handling plants) from the supplier, BGR Energy—a company which has been having some financial troubles. 

However, as the BoP issues have since been sorted out, Kumar saw no difficulty in NLC India commissioning all three units of Ghatampur in 2024-25. 

• Also read: NLC India’s net profit declines 86% y-o-y in Q4 FY24

The Ghatampur thermal power plant is being set up with an investment of ₹19,406 crore by a joint venture of NLC India and Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam, in which the former holds 51 per cent stake. Seventy-five per cent of the electricity generated is to be sold to UP Power Corporation at a levelized tariff of ₹4.52 a kWhr. The rest of the generation will be sold to Assam. “Commissioning of NUPPL (Ghatampur) plant of 1,980 MW capacity during current fiscal 2025, will support cash flow over the medium term,” the rating agency, CRISIL, said in an April 2024 note, giving NLC India a AAA rating.

Coal for the power plant is to come from NLC India-owned Pachwara South Coal Block, Jharkhand. NLC India will mine 9 million tonnes of coal a year from the block but will use about 5-6 m tons for feeding the Ghatampur plant—the rest of the coal will be sold in the market. 

On the BSE on Friday, the NLC India share closed at ₹279.15, which was ₹8.05 (2.8 per cent) lower than the previous close, trading 20.96 times earnings per share.