BackTata Power plans to acquire 540MW project in Maharashtra
Acquisition of coal-based power plant near Nagpur from Ideal Energy to take Tata Power's total capacity to around 8,885MW
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Mumbai: India’s largest integrated private power producer Tata Power Co. Ltd on Wednesday said it plans to buy a 540 megwatts (MW) coal-based power plant at Vela village near Nagpur in central Maharashtra from Ideal Energy Pvt. Ltd (IEPL). The value of transaction was not disclosed. The acquisition will take Tata Power’s total capacity to around 8,885MW.
In a statement, Tata Power said one unit of 270MW at the Vela plant was commissioned in May 2013. The company said it intends to use power generated from the plant for its consumers in Maharashtra.
The 270MW unit, though, is lying idle since it has not been able to sign power purchase agreements with any utility or commercial user. The plant has fuel linkages from three subsidiaries of Coal India Ltd—Western Coalfields Ltd, Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd and South Eastern Coalfields Ltd.
When contacted, IEPL chairman Jayant Mhaiskar declined to comment.
In December last year, Mint had reported that IEPL approached a group of six lenders led by Canara Bank for restructuring its ₹ 1,300 crore debt.
In an interview with Mint in December last year, Mhaiskar had said: “Hardly any state government-owned power distribution company (discom) has come out with bids inviting tenders from private power generators for supply of power and due to economic slowdown, there are no takers for merchant power."
Merchant power is the capacity of a power plant that is not tied up under long-term contracts with discoms and is sold directly through bilateral contracts with large industrial or commercial consumers or through power exchanges.
Tata Power ended at ₹ 87 on BSE on Wednesday, up 1.87% from its previous close, while the benchmark Sensex index rose 0.12% to close at 27,831.10 points.
IEPL had been looking to sell the project since 2011. However, the sale was stuck because of the controversy surrounding then Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari and his alleged relationship with IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd and its founders, the Mhaiskar family, some of whose members are promoters of IEPL, Mint reported in November 2012.
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