GMR Infra up 5%, subsidiary gets gas for 2 power plants

These two plants, with total capacity of 1138 MW, now can operate over the next six months starting October, 2015 at equivalent to 50 percent plant load factor (PLF) - up from 25 percent PLF in the previous round, it said.

According to its filing, with the current allocation of gas, operations will continue till March, 2016 and thereafter Government of India will call for a fresh round of bidding.

The government will subsidise power distribution companies to the extent of Rs 1.44 per unit from the Power System Development Fund (PSDF) for power procured from these two plants, GMR Energy said.

GMR Energy has a portfolio of 3000 MW of coal based assets and 1350 MW of gas based assets. Besides this, it also operates 25 MW solar plant and is in the process of developing hydro portfolio of about 2000 MW.

The government announced revival of five additional gas-based power plants, saying five partly stranded gas-based power plants have capacity of 3455.64 MW. "These plants will generate 1.43 billion units of electricity and power from these plants will be supplied at or below Rs 3.39/unit to discoms," it said.

Apart from GMR Energy, Torrent Power's Sugen plant has received 0.49 mmscmd gas at Rs 1.91 per unit for 1147.5 MW. NTPC’s Dadri & Auraiya plants, GIPCL’s Baroda plant and CLP India’s Paguthan plant also secured gas, sources said.

At 15:16 hours IST, the scrip of GMR Infrastructure was quoting at Rs 12.45, up Rs 0.15, or 1.22 percent on the BSE while Torrent Power closed at Rs 166.05, up Rs 9.10, or 5.80 percent.Posted by Sunil Shankar Matkar