Contradicting the Power Ministry’s thinking, the Suresh Prabhu-led high-level committee on energy has suggested that the country’s biggest thermal power producer, NTPC, should diversify its portfolio into hydro and other resources.
The Power Ministry, on the other hand, has been exploring the feasibility of consolidating all State hydro-power projects under NHPC, and leaving NTPC to concentrate on thermal units. The Ministry’s thinking was not well received by the unions of these public sector entities, sources said.
The advisory group of the ministries of power, coal and renewable energy, in its report, has said that NTPC’s performance in recent years had been affected — and continues to be so — by the coal shortage in the country. In the long run, hydro projects in NTPC’s portfolio will prove extremely useful in the context of the emerging market structure, in which cost plus generation tariff will get replaced by competitive pricing, with higher peak-hour rates.
In any case, the proportion of hydro projects has been coming down. The report also noted that NTPC’s Hydro Project Development — the project management approach, methodology of contract management, and monitoring — need to be revisited.
Last year, Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy, said it (transferring hydro assets to NHPC) was only a ‘thought’ that he had had over the course of review meetings at the Ministry. “Nothing has been formalised … if something better emerges, we could consider that as well,” he had told BusinessLine .
The report also added that NTPC needs to get aggressive on the renewables portfolio and that its present plan and projection to have 9 per cent of total capacity in this category by 2032 appears highly conservative. It further states that 10 per cent in the next five years is not only achievable, but for a coal-based power generation company is a great opportunity to balance its project profile and address climate change concerns.
NTPC Chairman and Managing Director Arup Roy Choudhury, in a letter employees on December 31, said that with backward integration, by venturing into coal mining and with the intent to enter distribution, NTPC is looking at becoming an integrated power major.
The company is also developing the world’s largest solar power project (at a single location by a single developer), with 1,000 MW capacity, in Andhra Pradesh.