Reliance Power plant may go onstream eight months ahead of schedule

NEW DELHI: Reliance Power could commission its 4,000 mw Krishnapatnam ultra mega power project eight months ahead of schedule after receiving permission from the regulator to slightly change its project configuration. Instead of five units of 800 mw each, the project will now have six units of 660 mw each and could be fully commissioned in early 2015, a top company executive told ET. It is easier to locate suppliers of 660 mw turbines than to find suppliers of 800 mw turbines, say company officials.

“As indicated in the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (CERC) order, the completion schedule of the Krishnapatnam project has been advanced. The entire project will now be operational eight months before the earlier deadline of October 2015,” said Reliance Power CEO J P Chalasani.

Reliance Power was awarded the Krishnapatnam project in 2007 after it won a competitive bid quoting a levellised tariff of 2.33 per unit for the Andhra Pradesh based UMPP. The company that time had said that first unit of the project will be completed by September 2013 and the full project in FY16.

As per the new schedule given by the company to CERC, the first unit of the project will now be completed in 65 months from the date of transfer of the project or by June 2013 instead of September 2013 and the entire project will also be commissioned a full eight months in advance.

A recent research report by Macqurie Equity Research had pointed out that Reliance Power had spent half of the proceeds of its $2.5 billion IPO but had not made much progress in the execution of its major power projects.