WHITE HEAT
NTPC LTD | ESTABLISHED IN 1975
CRANKING UP THE MACHINE
NTPC Ltd is a state-owned monopoly in electricity generation with installed capacity of 51,671 MW, of the country’s total capacity of 330,153 MW. NTPC contributed 24 per cent of the electricity consumed in the country in the last fiscal, 2016-17. A company born out of necessity after the food and oil crisis of 1973-74, then prime minister Indira Gandhi set up NTPC as a PSU to generate and supply thermal-based electricity (NHPC was set up for hydro projects). Its first target: improve project delivery efficiency. Power entities in the states used to take 60 months to instal 200 MW then, which NTPC soon brought down to 48 months or less.
Today, NTPC is present in all the verticals of power generation—gas, coal, solar, wind and hydro. The present government, though, is looking to keep the focus on thermal-based generation and big solar parks. In February 2015, the cabinet cleared the setting up of 15 GW of solar capacity with a commitment from NTPC Vidyut Vitaran Nigam—the power trading arm of NTPC— to buy it. The foray not only allows NTPC to reduce its carbon footprint, but the company’s robust balancesheet also lowers the risk for investors in the new solar parks.
THE ROAD AHEAD
NTPC’s goal is to be a 130 GW company (with generation of 600 billion units of electricity) by 2032, with a diversified fuel mix and also be the world’s No. 1 company in terms of power generation. It’s an extraordinary situation when most private players are looking for buyers for their projects (NTPC is aggressively evaluating several of them). Along with this, India is also revamping 11 GW of old and retiring power plants, work on which will again be mostly done by NTPC.