NLC India’s mining, power capacity expansion push requires ₹75,000 cr by 2030: Chairman & MD

Currently, we have four lignite mines and one coal block under operation. Lignite mines have a capacity of 30.1 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), while coal mine is of 20 MTPA. We are trying to expand our capacity in the Neyveli (Tamil Nadu) area. The land requirement and permissions are in process. We are expecting it to add around 15 MTPA there.

Other than that we are allotted the Pachwara (Jharkhand) coal block, which is for end use of the Ghatampur thermal power plant (TPP). Its capacity is 9 MTPA. We also want to participate in the commercial coal mining auctions and are targeting around 15 MTPA capacity there. So, by 2030, we want to have a capacity of around 84 MTPA.

At present, our lignite/ coal-fired portfolio is 4.64 GW, which we want to expand by another 7.36 GW. The Ghatampur (Kanpur) TPP with a capacity of 1,980 megawatt (MW) will become operational by FY24. Then we are going for one supercritical lignite-based TPP of 1,320 MW in the Neyveli area, which is expected to operate in the next 3-4 years. 

Then, we have plans to establish a ultra-super critical TPP of 2,400 MW capacity at our Talabira (Odisha) mine. We produced 10 MT in FY23 there and are targeting 12 MT. The tender is out and we are waiting for the landing acquisition to conclude. We are hopeful that by October-November 2023 we will get a substantial portion of the land and will be able to award the contract.

We have always been aggressive on this front. NLC India was the first CPSU that crossed 1 GW of RE. Currently, we have 1,421 MW capacity, which we will take up to 6,000 MW by 2030. The work is already in progress for 310 MW. Recently, in one tender we won 300 MW from Gujarat and they offered us the greenshoe option for another 300 MW. We will be mobilising the resources in such a way that this gets completed at the earliest. This will be in Khavda.

We will require around ₹75,000 crore for all this expansion. So, going by a 70:30 (debt:equity) ratio, we will require around ₹15,000 crore equity in a phased manner in next 7 years. Currently, NCLIL is earning a profit of around ₹1,500 crore. With commissioning of the Ghatampur TPP, ramped up production in Talabira and starting of production from Pachwara block, we expect that in next 2 years, our profit will increase to around ₹2,500 crore. We are confident that we can manage our equity part from these internal resources and already accumulated resources. Also, our ratings are triple A stars, so we will not have problems getting loans, even soft loans.

We are steering NLCIL to transform into a complete energy solutions provider, from RE power to battery storage to green hydrogen. We are going for a 4 MW green hydrogen pilot plant in the Neyveli area, which is expected to be completed in FY24 itself. We are in discussions with Engineers India. Already the 4 MW solar plant construction activities have been completed. So we are procuring an electrolyser for converting to hydrogen as a pilot and analyse how it works. Our thermal power station requires hydrogen for filling in the generators so this capacity can be used there initially.

India has a target of installing 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030. This requires a lot of land, which is a scarce commodity. So, floating solar can play an important role here. Its advantages include reducing water evaporation by more than 40 per cent and this is practically proven in all floating systems.

Another reason is that solar cells on panels are on the top side as solar radiance is there and on the bottom side water is there. Because of this differential temperature, the efficiency of these plants compared with conventional ground mounted plants will be higher. The only thing is that it is slightly costlier than the ground mounted ones because floating material is costly but with scale it is gradually coming down and once the scale of floating solar grows, the cost will further come down.