The state government will soon move the management of the US-based AES Ltd for additional capital infusion in Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) where the American firm holds 49 per cent equity.
P K Jena, chairman of OPGC and state energy secretary, is scheduled to visit Arlington (USA), AES headquarters, in the first week of February to hold talks with the AES top management. Since AES board meeting is expected towards the end of February, discussion on the matter is needed before that.
The talks are aimed at obtaining consent of the AES top brass for additional capital needed to fund OPGC’s expansion plan. The expansion plan involved addition of two supercritical units, each of 660 Mw, with an investment of Rs 11,547 crore which includes cost of other components like coal block development and dedicated rail corridor. The two units were to be added at OPGC's existing 420 MW thermal power station at Banharpalli near Jharsuguda.
OPGC has tied up funding of Rs 8,660 crore from Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Rural Electrification (REC), by executing a loan agreement with the two Central PSUs. The balance money will be contributed by the Odisha government and AES in proportion to their shareholding of 51 per cent and 49 per cent respectively in OPGC.
“Actual funding from the shareholders will begin after 2015. Presently, we have cash to go ahead with project implementation. We are going to finalise contracts soon for BTG (boiler-turbine-generator) and balance of plant equipment. Once we complete the necessary formalities, we can draw money from PFC and REC,” Venkatachalam Kuppusami, managing director, OPGC told Business Standard.
Construction work on the expansion plan is expected to take off in April 2013 with the commissioning scheduled during the 12th Plan period (2012-17). The Ministry of Coal has allocated Manoharpur and dip side of Manoharpur coal blocks for catering to OPGC's expansion plan.
Though Manoharpur and dip side of Manoharpur coal blocks were allocated for the OPGC project, it is projected that the coal mine would be in a position to achieve full production capacity two years after the commissioning of the power plant.
The development of the coal blocks were affected due to the classification by Union ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) as ‘No-Go’ category which were reclassified into ‘Go’ category only in June 2011.
This had prompted the state government to seek tapering coal linkage to support the OPGC expansion plan.
