The Hindu Business Line : Adani Power to expand capacity at Tiroda to 3,300 MW

Ahmedabad, Nov. 3 Adani Power Ltd (APL) announced that it would expand capacity at the under-construction thermal power project in Tiroda, Maharashtra, to 3,300 MW.

The initial plan was to produce 1,980 MW. The change envisages a total investment of nearly Rs 14,000 crore.

The company had collected Rs 3,016.52 crore via the capital market in July-August. The investment made until September 30 was Rs 1,667.86 crore, temporary investments in interest-bearing liquid instruments were Rs 1,216.11 crore and bank balance was at Rs 132.55 crore, according to unaudited results for the last three and six months.

The Tiroda plant is the first large-scale investment by Adani Group outside Gujarat. The project is being implemented by subsidiary Adani Power Maharashtra Ltd.

The company expects to generate power from Tiroda by the end of 2010. APL had approached the capital market to collect funds for its projects of 6,600 MW and intended to have a total generation capacity of nearly 10,000 MW by 2012. The company has entered into a power purchase agreement with Maharashtra Electricity Company Ltd for 1,320 MW.

The Tiroda project, being set up by APL with Millennium Developers, will use coal from captive mines at Lohara (West) and Lohara extension coalfields.

The company is also evaluating investments for generating 1,320 MW in Rajasthan and 2,000 MW at Dahej in Gujarat. APL is expected to fully commission the 4,620-MW imported coal-based unit at Mundra next year.

Coal mining

Adani Group, which has presence in front- and back-end electricity business, is the largest importer of coal for supply to power generation units since over a decade. It owns coal mining rights in Indonesia and is acquiring two large (capesize) ships of 1.80 lakh tonnes each.

In the front-end, it has the largest private sector power trading set up, which trades over three billion units of electricity. The Mundra plant is India’s largest power plant and will be the world’s third largest coal-based power plant, next only to those in Russia and Taiwan.

The power plants of Adani and Tata Group’s 4,000-MW UMPP at Mundra will be based on imported coal and requirements will be around 26 million tonnes a year.

This, coupled with other commercial coal imports, would make Mundra the world’s largest coal receiving terminal with capability to handle over 30 mt of coal. The cost of coal imported at Mundra would be competitive as this port has a depth of nearly 17 m, enabling capesize ships to dock and unload cargo.

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