Saturday, 13th March 2010.

Indian Power Sector Revs up.

Written on Sunday, 25th October 2009 by Neeta

After about a year Indian Power Sector specially the Power Scene dominated by Private Sector has started showing signs of revival. India’s 11th plan was supposedly a testing phase for private investments in the power sector. No doubt Indian Government had lined up slew of Ultra Mega Power Projects each with some 4000 MW capacity addition but private players were playing sort of waiting game.

power plant Indian Power Sector Revs up. technology There were announcements by many Industry majors to hop on to the power sector bandwagon in the country. But most of them were playing cards close to their chest. Faced with shortages of Main Equipment, many of Private Players went beyond the country’s shores and placed orders for about 20000 MW of orders on Chinese manufacturers. To allay the fears of planners, there were visits by Indian Teams to assess Chinese manufacturers capabilities. But Chinese juggernaut continued to roll on. Chinese suppliers have now been able to enter apart from Main Equipments like Boilers and Turbo-Generators, every other domain of Generation and Transmission sector. They have been able to bag orders for Transformers, Switchgears, Busducts and other distribution equipment.

In totality, Indian Power Sector has started looking up. Private investors have again started firming up their plans and placing orders with advances. A scenario which was not evident for over a year now. First two quarters of this fiscal year has seen private investors placing orders and paying initial advances. NTPC Ltd has announced setting up of eight super critical sets of 660 MW in the country. This would go a long way in revving up the gloomy mood of past one year in power sector. Funding agencies are also flush with funds and are eager to lend but albeit cautiously. Recent IPOs by Adani, NHPC and Indiabulls have been successful and this has further pepped up the mood in Power Sector.

12th plan projects which are expected to go in ordering mood now have more investments coming from private than the sum total of investments from Central as well as State sector.