Coal news and updates

NTPC expansion drive gets leg-up from 34 coal-based projects

As many as 34 companies have offered to sell their coal-based projects to NTPC, the country's largest thermal power producer which is on an expansion drive.

NTPC sought expression of interest (EOI) from state electricity boards, power generation companies, independent power producers etc for offering their coal-based thermal power projects for possible acquisition,” Power Minister Piyush Goyal told the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

The Maharatna company, which aims to add 14,000 MW capacity by 2017, had asked companies through advertisement to offer their stranded projects, which it will evaluate one by one and then decide.

 Against this EOI, 34 proposals have been received, Goyal added.

,The state-owned power generation firm is hopeful of finalising these proposals by 2014-end. It will evaluate the quality of equipment of these projects, the level of cleaances they have achieved, coal availability and sourcing the fuel in case of non-availability before buying these thermal power stations.

 According to sources, NTPC is in talks with private power companies such as L&T and Shapoorji Pallonji Group with a view to taking over their stranded plants.

NTPC, which ranked 337th in the ‘2012, Forbes Global 2000’ ranking of the world’s biggest companies, was set up in 1975 to accelerate power development in India.

Source: The New Indian Express