GVK Power eyes 7,500 MW thermal power capacity by 2016-17

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GVK Power and Infrastructure, the flagship company of Hyderabad-based GVK group, is planning to have 7,500 MW thermal power generation capacity by 2016-17, a senior company official said.

"The Plan is to have a thermal power capacity of 7,500 MW. It is at the drawing board currently but we aim to achieve this capacity in next 5 years," GVK Power's chief financial officer Issac George told PTI.

He added that to run the plants the company would import 20 million tonnes of coal a year from GVK Group's intended acquisition of assets of Australia's Hancock Coal.

The company, which has gas-based 901 MW power generation capacity, is expecting to commission its first thermal plant of 540 MW in Punjab in 2012-13, said the CFO.

Moreover, the move is part of a long-term growth plan of the company, which is aiming to have about 12,000 MW power generation capacity by 2016-17, he added.

Currently, new units of 3,530 MW power generation capacity are at various stages of construction and development, including 1,390 MW hydro power units.

On September 16, the GVK group had announced it would acquire coal assets and related logistics infrastructure in Australia from Hancock for USD 1.26 billion through a group company GVK Coal Developers (Singapore). The coal assets have resources of 7.9 billion tonnes.

The company is also planning to divest some of its equity in the new venture to raise around USD 1 billion to fund the acquisition.

George had earlier said that the company has received proposals from several firms, including an Indonesian coal company, for partnership to jointly develop the mines in Australia.

Moreover, the company is likely to invest additional USD 6 billion in the first phase of development which it is looking to fund through raising debt and outsourcing a range of activities like coal washing to optimise the costs.

According to the deal with Hancock, the project will come into production in 2014, dishing out 30 million tonnes of coal a year. The production can be increased to 84 MT as the development of assets progresses.