NTPC to list 3 arms to mop up ~15K cr
State-owned thermal power behemoth NTPC would list on exchanges its three subsidiary companies, in order to meet the government stipulated target of ~15,000 crore worth of asset monetisation. The three companies are NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO), and one-year-old Ntpcrenewable Energy (NREL).
NTPC would also exit its joint venture with steel major SAIL — NTPCSAIL Power Company — as part of the monetisation plan. Senior NTPC executives said NREL would be listed before October 2022. NTPC incorporated the wholly-owned subsidiary for its renewable energy projects in October 2020. Gurdeep Singh, chairman and managing director of NTPC, at a public event in June this year, had announced that NREL would be listed soon.
“We should not focus on one way of raising funds. We want to soon go public for raising funds,” he said. The company looks to add 7-8 Gw renewable energy every year.
Apart from solar and wind power projects, NTPC is looking at investing in green hydrogen and green methanol - cleaner fuels that are manufactured at units powered by renewable energy. Sources said the company would start a pilot of producing green hydrogen at its Vindhaychal thermal power unit in Madhya Pradesh.
NTPC builds renewable projects under two heads – the engineering, procurement, and construction model, under which it participates in tenders floated by the Centre and states and constructs on its own. It has constructed 1.2 Gw of solar and wind projects. The other is the developer mode through which it awards renewable projects to private companies and procures power to sell to states. Under the developer mode, 4 Gw projects are operational and tenders for close to 3 Gw will be finalised soon.
The other subsidiary is NVVN - established as the power trading arm of the company. Over the years, it has morphed into the environment arm for NTPC with projects in fly ash trading and usage, renewable energy, electric and hydrogen mobility, and waste to energy. NVVN is also planning projects procuring green, agro-based fuels for blending at thermal units. Recently, NVVN floated a tender to procure 20 million tonnes of bio-pellets made from farm stubble.
NTPC acquired a 100 per cent stake in NEEPCO in March last year, earlier owned by the Union government. NEEPCO operates seven hydro, three thermal and one solar power stations with a combined installed capacity of 2,057 Mw. Last financial year, NEEPCO commissioned its largest 600 Mw hydro project at Kameng, Arunachal Pradesh.