RPower's Butibori turns commercial

Power produced will help distribution entity serve its 2.5 mn customers in Mumbai

Reliance Power's Butibori power plant became completely operational today. The 600 megawatt power plant was synchronised to the grid in January last year, but did not start operations as it could not sign a long-term power sale agreement.

It has now signed a power purchase agreement with its group company. "The plant has commenced supplies under the a power purchase agreement for 25 years with Reliance Infrastructure, which holds a power distribution licence in Mumbai," Reliance Power said, in a statement.

Butibori is located in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, and the power produced will help the distribution entity serves its 2.5 million customers in Mumbai. RInfra has been fighting with its rival Tata Power, to retain its customers from opting out of its network. A long-term power deal can help keep the costs of distribution companies low. However, neither of the companies revealed the tariff at which the deal was done.

The current addition will bring the total operational power capacity of Reliance Power to 4,000 megawatts. The power generator already operates three units of its Sasan ultra mega power project, as well as a 1,200 megawatt power plant in Rosa in Uttar Pradesh, along with around 80 megawatts of wind and solar energy power plants.

The stock of Reliance Power traded flat as it went down by 0.3% in today's trade to Rs 70, as per data available on the Bombay Stock Exchange.