PTC India, the country’s largest power trading company, could see a jump in its income because of the Simhapuri power project of the Madhucon group, with which it has a tie-up.
The first unit (150 MW) of the Simhapuri project, which was commissioned in May, sold 122 million units through PTC. This added Rs 12.5 crore to PTC India’s pre-tax profits.
Now, the second unit (200 MW) will be operational soon. PTC India has entered into an annual offtake agreement for this project, under which it will buy power till May next year.
“PTC India’s tie-up for 350 MW through power tolling is expected to trigger earnings growth in 2012-13,” says a research report of Edelweiss Securities.
In the first quarter of the current year, PTC India earned revenues of Rs 1,987 crore on which it made a net profit of Rs 22 crore compared with Rs 2,487 crore and Rs 29 crore, respectively in the comparable quarter of last year.
The dip would have been worse, but for a Rs 2.1 crore ‘other income’ that was booked on receiving payment of Rs 100 crore from the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB).
Analysts expect PTC India’s power trading volume to go up to 52 billion by 2014-15 from 24 billion in 2010-11. The growth is expected mainly from long-term power purchase agreement-based trades, where the margins are higher.
The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission had capped the trading margins at 4 paise a unit in 2006. But recently, the regulator raised the cap to 7 paise for short-term trades and removed any cap on long-term trades.
ramesh.m@thehindu.co.in )