NTPC charged up for foreign foray

New Delhi, March 29: NTPC, the country's largest power utility, plans to set the ball rolling for its twin foreign forays - a 1,320MW power plant at Bagerhat in Bangladesh and a 500MW unit in Sri Lanka.

"We have been powering India's drive to growth and are now working to help drive Asia's growth. We intend to complete the Bagerhat plant by 2018 and will step up work on the Sampur coal project (Sri Lanka)," NTPC chairman Arup Roy Choudhury said in an interaction with The Telegraph.

Global tenders have been invited for the Bagerhat project, and preliminary civil work at the 1800-acre site has been completed.

NTPC has a 50:50 joint venture with state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board for the 2x660MW project near Khulna.

The Rs 8,000-crore plant will depend on about 8 million tonnes of high-grade coal imported annually through competitive bidding, possibly from Indonesia. Besides, the PSU will export 250MW through a 125km transmission line from Behrampore in Bengal to Bheramara in Bangladesh.

However, Roy Chowdhury, who will complete 14 years at the Rs 80,000-crore PSU next week, ruled out a second project in Bangladesh.

Earlier, NTPC was exploring the possibility of a second power unit at Chittagong.

Power demand in Bangladesh is estimated to be over 7,000MW, while the shortfall is seen to be around 1000MW, after importing 500MW from India. The gap may widen unless Bangladesh steps up investment in infrastructure as the demand is expected to hit 20,000MW by 2020.

On the Sri Lankan project, Roy Chowdhury said, "Sri Lanka is a good place to spread our wings. The atmosphere is conducive and we have developed a good commercial relationship with our Lankan counterparts."

The coal plant a joint venture of NTPC and Ceylon Electricity Board - is being set up at Sampur in Sri Lanka's Trincomalee area.

Power from the will be transmitted to Sri Lanka's high-voltage transmission lines. India will also work to link its national grid with Lanka's grid through an undersea link.

NTPC, which has over 40,000MW of installed capacity, also plans to set up 15,000MW of grid-connected solar projects, which would be completed in three tranches.

The rapid fall in the cost of solar power has ignited interest in this alternative source of energy.

"We have done the maths and solar power will be a very profitable deal for us... we are not going in to this merely to meet environmental responsibilities, it's a commercial decision," Roy Choudhury said.

NTPC has floated a notice inviting tender for four solar projects of 250MW each in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telengana and Rajasthan and one solar project of 500MW in Andhra Pradesh.

The first 250MW project at Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh is expected to be awarded this financial year. Availability of land and options for power purchase agreements are being explored in states such as Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Puducherry and Gujarat.

NTPC has commissioned solar projects with an installed capacity of 110MW, of which the 50MW Rajgarh plant in Madhya Pradesh is the largest.