Essar Power, India’s second-largest, private-sector power generation firm
is also a low-cost producer. The company has deployed the latest technology and
equipment to enable it to generate and supply power at competitive price points.
Its power plants employ a high level of automation, which translates to India's lowest manpower-to-megawatt ratio. Its operational costs are also reduced because its plants have access to dedicated raw material sources. Essar owns coal mines in Indonesia and Mozambique, which gives Essar Power access to an estimated resource base of 100 million tonnes of high-quality coal.
Essar Power has built expertise ranging from project conception to commissioning, including engineering, procurement and construction. Its plant operation and maintenance standards are comparable to the world's best. This is demonstrated through a high plant availability of over 96 percent and a plant load factor of over 85 percent.
Essar Power, with a 14-year operating track record, currently has four operational power plants in India and one operational power plant in Algoma, Canada, with a total installed generation capacity of 1,600 MW. It has two gas-based plants of 500 MW and 515MW capacities in Bhander and Hazira respectively, a 500MW co-generation plant in Vadinar (all in Gujarat, India) and an 85MW plant in Algoma (Ontario, Canada).
The existing capacity of 1,600MW is being raised to 4,630MW by the end of 2012. The 1200MW Salaya power plant is fully commissioned with the second unit of 600MW recently starting commercial production.
The coal-fired Salaya project, with a total 1,200MW capacity, has been set up at a cost of $1.1billion. The other power projects due to be commissioned in 2012 include the 1,200MW Mahan I project, 120MW Paradip project and the 510MW Vadinar P2 project.
The company aims to achieve a total capacity of 6,700MW by 2014. It has recently moved seven power projects to the construction phase, taking the total installed capacity under construction to 9,870MW.
Essar Power is also exploring opportunities for new projects based on thermal, wind and hydro energy. Additionally, it is committed to reducing emissions from its plants and earning carbon credits. The 500MW combined cycle power plant at Hazira is eligible for Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
As the first private company with a license to enter the transmission and power trading segments, Essar Power is now a fully integrated, end-to-end player in the power sector.
