Expect power portfolio to increase by 400-500 mw this year: PTC

Volume is the primary driver for growth, Deepak Amitabh, CMD of PTC India tells CNBC-TV18. “During this year (FY17) another 500-600 megawatt (MW) should come in our power portfolio”, he said.

Amitabh expects margins to be better this year compared to the previous two years.

The company is in discussion with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) to have a market for tradign in renewable energy. The discussions are at an advanced stage. “We believe during this year this market should begin”, he said.

Below is the verbatim transcript of Deepak Amitabh’s interview to Anuj Singhal and Sonia Shenoy on CNBC-TV18.

Sonia: Good quality numbers coming in yet again for the company, take us through the volume picture, currently you are standing at about 12,200 units, what kind of growth do you see for the next couple of quarters?

A: I believe that the growth should continue and last year we had done about 42 billion unit so we should be in anyway more than 45 billion units.

Anuj: Can you tell us how would that translate into numbers for the financial year?

A: As we have said that volume is the main primary driver and the mix of the volume — if you see our results over last two-three years, our long-term volumes have been increasing and we believe during this year another 500-600 MW should come into our power portfolio starting from December to March — there should be addition of long-term sale, which we have done to Uttar Pradesh (UP) and to Rajasthan. Similarly, there has been a dip in the short-term volumes which are there but that have been duly compensated by our increase in the exchange. So from the last quarter of previous year, this quarter there has been increase of 39 percent volumes and similarly for long-term also there has been increase of 21 percent. So this trend should continue on the volume front, we are able to maintain our margin also, Rs 5.3 paise so we have been able to maintain our average margin also very well during this quarter.

Sonia: You did Rs 5.03 paise per unit, do you think you can better those margins in the next couple of quarters because of the larger share of long-term trades like GMR , Lanco etc?

A: Yes, if our long-term volumes — now transmission is a constraint which we have to live with even this quarter we lost about 1.1 billion unit because of transmission constraint. So if there is no transmission constraint for the long-term volumes, which are going to come, which we don’t oversee, maybe a couple of months here or there, they have a better profitability.

Anuj: What is the potential there, if those bottlenecks are removed, what kind of potential do you have in that front?

A: Numbers I will not be able to pinpoint because being a listed company, we cannot be just playing around with numbers but as we have said that long-term volumes have a better 0.5 paise, 0.7 paise, 0.8 paise also, so depending upon what is the weighted average but we are also increasing our volumes in the exchange traded where margins are lesser. So it is going to be a play of all those things and only by the year-end, we will know exactly but it should be better than what we have been doing for last couple of years.

Sonia: Can you give us an update on your partnership with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and what kind of potential do you see from there?

A: We are in discussion with MNRE and the SECI to get the power market also introduced in the renewable sector. So we are at a very advanced stage of discussions and negotiations with the SECI and MNRE under the guidance of MNRE and we believe that during this year, this market should also begin.

Anuj: Last year the concern was on the delay in realisation of dues from the State Electricity Boards (SEBs) for your entire group, all such companies like yours. Is that in place now?

A: I will say that this concern was there when we got listed in 2004 also and it is 12 years since the time. We have almost collected about Rs 100,000 crore from the state utilities. Some delays were there in 2004, 2005 also, some delays continue but if you see Tamil Nadu, which was there — all the dues have been totally recovered and surcharge recovery is also going to begin soon. So some pockets but more than 75-80 percent money keeps coming in time, 15-20 percent delays which are there and that they are suitably compensated by rebate income and the surcharge income which we make into.

Source: CNBC-TV18