India Energy Giant Posts Record Electricity Output, Mostly From Coal

India's state-owned energy company NTPC said the company produced a record amount of electricity on an annual basis over the past fiscal year, with the utility's coal-fired power stations recording a plant load factor, or capacity utilization, of 77%. NTPC, the former National Thermal Power Corp., in a statement published March 31, said it generated 422 billion units, or 422 TWh, of electricity in its most recent 12-month fiscal period (April 2023 to March 2024), a 6% increase over its previous output on an annual basis. The New Delhi-headquartered group owns about 76 GW of installed generation capacity across 51 power stations (thermal and renewable), including 27 coal-fired power plants with gross generation capacity of about 54 GW. The newest of those coal-fired units, the 800-MW Unit 2 of NTPC's 1,600-MW Telangana Super Thermal Power Project, entered commercial operation on Feb. 29. NTPC also has a stake in 42 power plants owned by subsidiaries or as part of joint ventures. That includes nine coal-fired stations with 8.3 GW of generation capacity. NTPC has a goal of 130 GW of installed power capacity of all types by 2032, including 85 GW of coal-fired generation, up from 65.4 GW currently. The company in March signed two separate non-binding agreements with RVUNL (Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam), including one "to explore opportunities for adding supercritical units to the existing Chhabra Thermal Power Plant," according to a news release. RVUNL is the government-run energy company for Rajasthan state. The second agreement between the groups calls for development of 25 GW of renewable energy generation capacity, and 1 million tons of green hydrogen production. NTPC on April 1 said it had won government tenders for 3,445 MW of renewable energy capacity in the past fiscal year. —Darrell Proctor is a senior associate editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).