Rosa Plant to continue with robust performance: RPower

Reliance Power which reported a 57%, YoY growth in its September quarter revenues has said that its Rosa plant in Uttar Pradesh, which generated 65% more units, YoY will continue to perform well even in the ensuing quarters.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, J.P Chalasani, the company's chief executive said that the power plant has registered a 100% plant load factors during the quarter and he expects the unit to continue with its robust performance.

The company is also aggressive in developing the 3,960-MW Sasan ultra mega power project with the successful light-up of the boiler of the first 660-MW super-critical unit. Coal production from the associated coal mines has also started, added Chalasani

Below is the transcript of his interview with CNBC-TV18

Q: Can you take us through the profit picture for the current quarter? How much of it came from the operating side?

A: As you have seen the topline grew from the operating assets by more than 100-120 percent. The profit remained at 240 crore. The difference is that profit this time is compared to the same quarter last year. The profit came from the operating assets, instead of cash reserves and that makes a difference. But, we are moving away from the cash company to the actual operating assets company on this. So, from that angle it’s a significant achievement of maintaining same level of profits.

Q: Can you give us the contribution that came in from Rosa this quarter?

A: Rosa continues to do well on this. We had 78 percent of availability factor and Rosa gave profitability of 141 percent and EBITDA margin 40 percent. This is very good EBITDA margin to have for an operating asset of this nature. Therefore Rosa continues to give us robust results like the previous quarter. It is operating well in this quarter as well. In fact in the first month of quarter that is October, we had over 100 percent availability and plant load factor of 87 percent. Therefore, Rosa is going to remain as the mainstay for us. As we keep commissioning more and more plant.

Q: Can you give us the details of the coal arrangement for Rosa now?

A: This quarter, Q2 of this financial year we had 40 percent coming from linkage coal, 40 percent from imported coal and 20 percent from the domestic market coal. Obviously, this particular quarter the realization of linkage coal has been less because of monsoon impact. But, that is the ration 40:40:20.

Q: Can you give us an update on Sasan?

A: Sasan is our main big project which we have been working for quite some time. As you know on the mine side of current coal production, we have close to 100,000 tonne of coal stacked at the mine end. The mining operation has got fully stabilized. We are ready to feed the power plant to the extent of its required quantity. So it is fully ready. On the power plant side, there are quite a few milestones we achieved during the quarter. First thing is we got connected to the grid and started drawing power for the startup activities. Then the boiler light up, which is the major activity for commencing the commissioning. The unit has been achieved a couple of weeks back. Now we are doing the commissioning activity for the boiler and turbine. If everything goes as we plan today, we should be in a positioning to put this unit on stream by the end of this year.

Q: What kind of commissioning details can you share with us for the second half of this year?

A: Rosa is fully up and running 1,200 megawatt. One unit of Butibori is done and second unit would come in this quarter. So, obviously 300 MW would be the one coming in second half of the financial year and other big one is Sasan. We expect a couple of units to get commissioned which is 2x 660 MW. It is a huge capacity to come in the second of this financial year, which is 1320+300 MW. Plus, we would be commissioning the wind capacity of 45 MW in Maharashtra. Samalkot would be moving ahead and put into operations trajectory. The solar thermal project would be close to commissioning by the end of this financial year. Practically every single project under construction today, is on schedule or ahead of schedule.

Q: The CAG report and their assessment of the use of surplus coal have had some overhang on your stock. Can you clarify what is the latest on that front?

A: I just don't see any negative hangover on the company. Whether it is the operating assets, we have been operating our generating assets in a very highly efficient manner. Our results are out there for everybody to see on the projects which are under construction. There are regular news outflow of respective commissioning activities. One big thing is Sasan which is the first major ultramega power project in our basket, where you have seen the coal production fully getting streamlined, is the fastest coal production in this country for a greenfield mine. The first unit of Sasan is ready to get commissioned in the next few weeks. So, obviously I look at it from the point of view that what is going to happen is positive only.