Monday, 30 December 2013

Long-term power deals inch up

After much delay, state electricity boards or SEBs have decided to execute their plans to buy long-term power. Jharkhand, Punjab and Maharashtra are looking to call for bids for power supply over 10-12 years. This would bring relief to generators like JSW Energy, Jindal Power and Essar Power which have been looking for such sale opportunities.“SEBs have been delaying their plans to buy long-term power so we are selling at much shorter terms,” said Sanjay Sagar, the chief executive officer of JSW Energy at its last quarterly results meet. The company sells around 50% of its power via merchant route.

Tying up power in long-term agreements would bring in stability to power generators, helping them keep their average power sales constant. “Now that state electricity boards have cleared the process of calling for tenders it would be a great positive for private sector power generators,” said Rupesh Sankhe, power analyst at Angel Broking.SEBs have been under pressure due to their own credit crunch. Unable to raise retail power rates, they had piled up huge loans. In the last one year, many sick SEBs have progressively increased rates, and are now able to buy power.

Source: Business Standard

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