Increase in fuel cost along with a 30-day shutdown of one unit at Rosa power plant for overhaul, led to Reliance Power posting a near flat net profit at Rs 235 crore for the quarter-ended September 30, 2011.

Total income rose to Rs 751 crore (Rs 169 crore), while other income mainly from returns on IPO funds came down to Rs 264 crore (Rs 344 crore), due to deployment. The unutilised portion of the IPO fund of Rs 11,563 crore stands at Rs 3,561 crore.

Mr J. P. Chalasani, Chief Executive Officer, said despite the shutdown of one unit of the 2 X 300 MW unit, the plant was able to achieve a PLF (plant load factor) of 76 per cent. The impact of the downtime for overhaul for one unit was about 17 per cent.

Fuel cost

On fuel cost, he said the generation had gone up and so had fuel consumption, which was a blend of 60 per cent coal linkage and 40 per cent imported and domestic. Fuel cost more than doubled at Rs 289 crore (Rs 100 crore). During the quarter generation was 1,030 million units (530 mu). Operating revenues were up at Rs 488 crore (Rs 169 crore).

Mr Chalasani, said the first unit of 300 MW of Rosa II (2 X 300 MW) would be commissioned next month and the second unit by March 2012.

Samalkot project

On the progress of the 2,400-MW Samalkot gas-based project in Andhra Pradesh, he said all six gas turbines had reached India and the first two were installed.

On gas availability, he said there would be no issue for gas during commissioning and only the long-term supply had to be addressed, which the plant would need from June 2012. Given, the priority the Government accords to power and fertiliser plants, allocation should come through.

Considering the supply constraints in availability, the plant could get 65 per cent of its requirement. The combined cycle operations of the plant would start in December, 2012. A combination of domestic gas and imported could be considered thereafter or the plant could operate at lower PLF of 65-75 per cent till such time supply was channelised.

On Tuesday, the RPower scrip on BSE closed 3.52 per cent higher at Rs 102.80.

RInfra net flat

The consolidated net profit of Reliance Infrastructure for the second quarter ended September 30 was marginally up at Rs 362 crore as against Rs 360 crore. Total operating income was up 44 per cent at Rs 5,729 crore compared to Rs 3,969 crore. However, material cost and sub-contracting charges in engineering and sub-contract businesses rose to Rs 1,848 crore from Rs 564 crore.

On Tuesday, the company scrip on BSE closed four per cent higher at Rs 475.

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