HYDERABAD: AP Genco has achieved a turnover of Rs 11,381 crore for 2011-12, up 25 per cent over last year. Thereby, it has become a $ 2.2 billion plus State-owned power utility.
The corporation achieved a net profit of Rs 401 crore, up 28 per cent, mainly due to increase in plant load factor and bringing about internal efficiencies without hiking tariffs.
The Managing Director of AP Genco, Mr K. Vijayanand, said the corporation has incurred a capital expenditure of Rs 3,640 crore during 2011-12, limiting the borrowings and redeploying funds from internal accruals. It also managed to discharge Rs 401 crore worth bonds from its reserves.
Addressing a press conference, Mr Vijayanand said that the corporation managed a plant load factor, a measure of efficiency of over 80 per cent. This is more than the national average of 72 per cent. During the XI Plan period ended March 31, 2012, the corporation managed to add a record capacity of 2,373 MW. About Rs 12,500 crore was invested during the period.
The Joint Managing Director of AP Genco, Mr Prabhakar Rao, said 3,000 MW of new capacity is in advanced stage of implementation. This includes 2×800 MW at Krishnapatnam, 800 MW at Bhoopalapally and 600 MW of Rayalaseema thermal power corporation. All these are likely to be completed in the next financial year.
The corporation has tied for finances and coal linkages and is confident of deploying expansion projects on time. In all six projects with an outlay of Rs 17,488 crore are under construction. “Instead of taking up new projects, which result in delays, we are preferring to expand at existing plants,” Mr Rao said.
In addition, six more projects of 7,242 MW capacity with an outlay of Rs 35,263 crore are under development and five projects of 6,800 MW capacity are under investigation.
Referring to the Vodarevu 4,000 MW power plant, Mr Rao said, “All mandatory clearances, including environmental, have been secured for the project. Once we mange to acquire the land for the project, we would be able to implement it.”
While the average cost of generation of AP Genco thermal plant is Rs 3.10/unit and Rs 1.42/unit in case of hydel projects. This is amongst the lowest in the country, they added.
Meanwhile, AP Genco imported 1.6 million tonne coal during the last financial year at a negotiated price of Rs 5,532 per tonne through a couple of public sector entities as compared with Rs 7,300 per tonne paid by NTPC for the imported coal, according to K Vijayanand, managing director of the state-owned power generation company.
The Opposition Telugu Desam Party yesterday alleged that the chief minister had received some Rs 340 crore as kickbacks in coal imports made for APGenco. Though the government is yet to react to this allegation, the state power utility in a hurriedly held press conference on Wednesday shared these details along with its annual financial performance.
“We followed transparent procedures, right from inviting seven public sector entities that deal with coal and selected the L1, who quoted the price of Rs 5,640 per tonne. Then the committee headed by the joint managing director APGenco negotiated with the firm to bring the price further down to Rs 5,532, which includes the cost of delivery of coal at the doorsteps of power stations,” he told the reporters.
However, Vijayanand added that the company also roped in the second lowest bidder, who had agreed to supply the imported coal at the same price.
He said the coal imports, which involved over Rs 1,000 crore, had been done at the lowest possible rates and these rates are the lowest compared with the imported coal prices of any other state power utility in the country, including NTPC. According to him, MahaGenco paid over Rs 7,000 per tonne for imported coal while Tamil Nadu and Karnataka imported the same at Rs 6,150 and Rs 5,831 per tonne respectively.
The energy ministry has been allowing APGenco to import 1.6 million tonne a year for the past couple of years owing to supply shortage. The company is facing a shortage of 4 million tonnes for the existing needs that translates into 27-28 million tonnes per annum, Vijayanand said.
Coal India Limited (CIL) has been supplying only 6 million tonnes to APGenco as against the linkage of 12 million tonnes while Singareni Collieries Company Limited supplied about 18 million tonnes as against the firm allocation of 12 million tonnes during 2011-12.
APGenco will be a beneficiary of the recent directive issued to Coal India on signing and honouring the coal linkage commitments with power developers in the country, Vijayanad said.