News Detail

• Power sector stocks are being beaten black and blue at the markets over the past week. NHPC , Indiabulls Power , Tata Power , all have been slipping down to record lows. CNBC-TV18 catches up with ABL Srivastava, chairman and managing director of NHPC to find out what the industry woes are at this point and how it’s going to look like from here on.
• Q: First up, are you seeing any delays coming in from State Electricity Boards in terms of either payments or offtake of power?
• A: There are two issues which you have raised- one is regarding the offtake and another is regarding delay in the payments. As far as the offtake is concerned, there is no problem; all the discoms and the beneficiaries, they are taking required allocated power from the hydro sector because hydro power is cheaper as compared to other modes of generation. But as regards the repayment, although our collection in the current financial year is much more than last year, there are some delays in respect to some beneficiaries. The repayments which normally used to come within 60 days, there is a default, and some of the beneficiaries have not paid the money even beyond 60 days. This is a recent development over the past few months only. As of the beginning of the year, there was no default of 60 days and above.
• Q: Can you give us an idea of your capacity expansion plans? Are they still on track?
• A: In hydro, there are always uncertainties. We had planned to complete five projects in current financial year - They were Nimmo-Bazgo, Chutak, Uri 2, Chamera 3 and one unit of Parvati 3. We have been in a position to start the first unit of the Chutak, we are hopeful to commission three units of Chutak this year, then Chamera 3 and Uri project. As far as the Nimmo-Bazgo project is concerned, this has slipped to the next financial year. To this extent the current capacity plan for the year has gone out of our control.
• In the next year, we are likely to add Nimmo-Bazgo, KLDP 3, and complete Parvati 3 project. There are some delays which sometimes are beyond our control.
• As far as the next plant is concerned, in 12th plan, we expect to add a capacity of roughly 4000 megawatt. The current capacity is 5295 MW and in current plan, roughly 500 MW will be added. Thereby, by end of the 12th plan, we should be roughly a 10000 Megawatt company.
• Q: Being a cash-rich company yourself, what is your take on the entire cross holdings structure issue that is proposed by the government?
• A: We have not received any proposal from the Government of India on this issue, neither is any decision by the company in the offing on this issue.
• Q: So, you are saying you don’t plan any buy backs or cross holdings at this point?
• A: We will take a call when any proposal comes, but as of now, we don’t have any plans of buybacks or cross holdings. The only plan is to invest cash surplus in ongoing projects and try to get more and more projects.
• Q: There were some news reports recently about China looking to build a dam on their side of the Brahmaputra river. Will this affect your business?
• A: The capacity addition plan which are on going and which are on our shelf of projects, none of them are likely to be affected by any China move. We are not aware about anything on this because no such report has come to our knowledge through External Affairs Ministry on whether any move by China is likely to affect our project planning.

Source