NTPC to globalise its operations

Public sector power major, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has decided to globalise its operations. NTPC has for the first time dr...

Public sector power major, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has decided to globalise its operations. NTPC has for the first time drawn up a blue print to pick up equity in overseas power projects, either on its own or jointly with international companies by forging strategic alliances with them.

CMD, NTPC, C.P. Jain said the corporation is pursuing various opportunities in Oman, Algeria, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. NTPC has signed an MoU with leading international engineering company — Black and Veatch (B&V) for jointly executing power projects. The two companies have recently submitted a joint bid for setting up a 800 mw gas based project in Algeria.

“We have formed a consortium of NTPC, B&V, MHI of Japan and French major Sopfresite (subsidiary of Sypem) for this 800 mw project in Algeria. Other companies in race for this project are Siemens, Germany, SNC Lavalin, Canada and Iberdrola of Italy,” he added.

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NTPC is also pursuing equity participation in a 500 mw power project in Oman for which it has forged an alliance with the domestic engineering conglomerate — Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). “The project is to be developed on a build-operate-own (BOO) basis and the company which gets the mandate for executing this project will have to give a commitment to run and own the project for a period of at least 15 years,” Jain added. If selected, this will be the first overseas project owned and operated by both NTPC and BHEL.

Giving details, the executive director (business development), NTPC, N S Choudhary said that NTPC and BHEL had jointly submitted an ex-pression of interest (EoI) for the 500 mw Sohar power and desalination project in Oman. As many as 32 international players had participated in the project and the NTPC-BHEL consortia has been shortlisted along with 11 other companies for submitting a request for qualification (RFQ) for the project. The 11 companies in race for the Oman project includes Total, Nisho AY, Tractebel, International Power, Sumitomo, Mitsui, NTPC-BHEL, SNC Lavalin and Mapna International.

“NTPC is closely studying the markets in Vietnam. Sri Lanka is another country where we expect lot of projects to come. In addition to this, Middle East and neighbouring countries will also be our focus markets,” added Choudhary.