Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the NTPC Limited Q2 FY27 conference call hosted by Nuvama Wealth Management Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Subhadip Mitra from Nuvama Wealth Management Limited. Thank you and over to you.
Subhadip Mitra: Thank you. Good afternoon, friends. On behalf of Nuvama Wealth Management, welcoming you all to the Q2 FY27 earnings call of NTPC Limited. We have with us today the senior management of NTPC led by Director Finance, Mr. Jaikumar Srinivasan. Over to you, sir.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am Jaykumar Srinivasan, Director of Finance of NTPC Limited and NTPC Green Energy Limited. It gives me pleasure to welcome you all to our earnings conference call for the second quarter and H1 ended 30 September 2026. Joining me today are my colleagues on the board, Shri Shivam Srivastava, Director (Fuel), Shri K. Shanmugha Sundaram, Director Project, Shri Ravindra Kumar, Director Operations, Shri Anil Kumar Jadli, Director Human Resource, along with other members of our senior leadership team. We have announced our financial results for Q2 FY27 and H1 ended September 26, and I have shared the operational financial snapshot with the stock exchange. They are available for your reference. I will take you through the key developments covering the Indian power sector outlook and NTPC and NGEL's operational and financial performance before opening the floor for questions.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: The power demand has seen a substantial growth during FY27. The country recorded year-on-year growth of about 11% in power generation and about 15% in power demand during H1 of the current fiscal. October month figure reflects further increased pace with a growth of 21% compared to the corresponding month of the last year. Compared with the corresponding month of 2025-2026, peak demand increased by 8.9% to 22.5%, while non-peak demand increased by 6.1% to 15.4%. Based on average monthly data for H1, peak demand grew by about 14.5% and non-peak demand by about 9.5%. The maximum demand met during the period was 271 gigawatt for peak demand and 253 gigawatt for non-peak demand. The highest increase occurred in July month when peak demand increased by about 50 gigawatt and non-peak demand by about 34 gigawatt.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: The major contributors for this demand are digital services, urban transport, industries, changing weather pattern, and data centers. Rising demand during both peak and non-peak hours creates growth opportunities and reinforces the need for reliable base load power supply. NTPC's generation portfolio and NGEL's renewable business complement each other in meeting this trend of demand. Accordingly, we are combining the strength of both organizations and developing new business models to meet the country's growing power needs and create long-term value for our shareholders through disciplined investment into value-accretive projects. At the same time, the grid is becoming more complex. Rapid renewable penetration is increasing backing down requirements during solar hours and creating steep evening ramps. To address this, we are already implementing 5 gigawatt hour of battery energy storage system at our thermal power stations, alongside pursuing other long-duration storage opportunities.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: NTPC Group delivered a strong operational performance during the second quarter. The growth in generation, captive coal dispatch, and power trading volumes indicate robust growth in every business. However, due to transmission constraint, NGEL is facing curtailment of power from RE projects, which is phenomenon faced by other RE projects in the country too. To address this issue, NGEL has plans to implement 40 gigawatt hours of battery for which proposals are under process. In addition to the above, NGEL has entered into contracts for 3 gigawatt hours of storage in service mode and additional 12 gigawatt hours are under tendering in service mode. To address transmission constraints and renewable energy curtailment, the Government of India approved the Green Energy Corridor Phase-III schemes on 30 September 2026.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: The scheme is to strengthen intra-state transmission systems to evacuate up to 135 GW of renewable power and provide 50 GWh of battery energy storage. It has a total project outlay of INR 1,86,405 crore with central financial support of INR 54,082 crore and is targeted for completion by FY32-33. Coal generation continued to provide reliable power and help balance the grid, particularly as hydro output was lower during the quarter. According to the CEA report, the plant load factor of coal plants across the country rose to 70.37% in H1 FY27 compared to 66.02% in H1 last year. Higher PLF has increased coal consumption, which continued to exceed supply. Accordingly, several coal stations in the country have critical coal stock levels. Presently, we have 5.2 MMT of coal stock at our stations, sufficient for 7 days of coal requirement.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Despite supply constraint from CIL and Singareni Collieries Company Limited, dispatches from our captive mines grew by nearly 21% in H1 FY27. This was made possible by better monsoon preparedness at our coal mines and effective planning of our coal loading infrastructure. We have also issued tenders to procure 13 MMT of coal for H2 FY27 from alternative sources, including commercial mines, Odisha Power Generation Corporation, NLC, and West Bengal. We are also in the process of awarding 4 million metric ton of additional coal to be procured through domestic sources. We are closely monitoring coal stocks and coordinating with all stakeholders, including Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Power, and Ministry of Railways, while working to increase the production from our captive mines. With commencement of land acquisition process of one of our projects, our nuclear program has picked up speed.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: We have also strengthened our nuclear team, bringing the team strength to over 100 numbers. The Government of India has published draft rules under the SHANTI Act for setting up nuclear power plants in the country. These rules are currently under consultation and mark an important step towards wider participation in India's nuclear sector. Recently, we have also issued expression of interest for offering 26% equity to commercial and industrial consumers under group captive route, which will create an additional pillar of sustained growth and moving forward. We have also decided to establish a 100 MW data center at a couple of locations as part of our initial phase. We are also exploring further opportunities in this business. Now I return to NTPC Group's key highlights during H1 FY27. As on H1 FY27, NTPC Group's installed capacity stood at 91,506 MW.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: We have added 2,398 MW of capacity, out of which NTPC is 196 MW, NGEL Group is 1,136 MW, and other group companies have added 1,066 MW. Additionally, 162 MW have been added in October 2026. NTPC Group generation stood at 236 billion unit in H1 FY27 compared with 214 billion in H1 FY26, registering growth of 10.4%. NTPC reached the 200 billion unit generation milestone in 156 days, its fastest ever achievement. NTPC coal station achieved a PLF of 75.11% against rest of India's average of 68.35%. Generation from NGEL Group during H1 FY27 stood at 10.88 billion units as compared to 6.76 billion unit in H1 FY26, registering a growth of 60%. NVVN traded 31 billion units of power as compared to 24.8 BU in H1 FY26, registering a growth of 25%.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: NVVN has also commissioned 250 MW by 500 MWh BESS as part of BESS implementation, implementing agency notified by Ministry of Power. Coal dispatch from group captive coal mines increased to 26.13 million metric tons in H1 FY26 as compared to 21.63 MMT last year, registering a growth of 21%. NTPC has awarded Lara Stage III 1,600 MW and issued limited notice to proceed pending environmental clearance in Q2 FY27. Our group thermal stations co-fired 0.83 million metric tons of biomass, which is 65% more than biomass co-fired during H1 FY26. NTPC participated in Ministry of Coal Incentive Scheme for coal gasification projects and submitted a proposal for producing 5 lakh ton per annum synthetic natural gas at Talaipalli. We are also planning to participate in round two of the scheme for methanol, dimethyl ether, urea plant, et cetera.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: During the H1 FY27, Crisil ESG Ratings & Analytics Limited has assigned Crisil ESG 62 category strong to NTPC. As regards fund mobilization, during the H1 FY27, a loan agreement amounting to US dollar 750 million was executed on 6 May 2026 between NTPC and a consortium of SBI, HDFC and Bank of Baroda, all from IFSC, GIFT City. NTPC has availed RBI concessional USD INR swap facility for the drawn amount of US dollar 450 million. The weighted average interest rate on borrowings during H1 FY27 stood at 5.72% compared to 5.98% in FY26, reflecting the benefits of proactive refinancing and restructuring of company's loan portfolio. As regards capital expenditure progress in H1 FY27, we have incurred a group capex of INR 23,932 crore as compared to INR 23,115 crore in H1 FY26.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: While on a standalone basis, NTPC has incurred capex of INR 14,398 crore in H1 FY27 as compared to INR 14,149 crore in H1 FY26. The gross property, plant and machinery as on 30 September 2026 on group level has increased to INR 4,85,444 crore from INR 4,37,142 crore as on 30 September 2025 during the last one year, an increase by 11%. I will now take you through some of the key financial numbers giving comparison for the corresponding period. As regarding the standalone financials, revenue from operation for Q2 FY27 is INR 45,752 crore as against INR 39,167 crore for Q2 FY26, registering a growth of 17%. For H1 FY27, revenue from operation has reached INR 89,584 crore from INR 81,736 crore in H1 FY26, registering a growth of 10%. NTPC's profit after tax for Q2 FY27 is INR 5,320 crore as against INR 4,653 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous year, registering a growth of 14%.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: NTPC's profit after tax for H1 FY27 is INR 10,662 crore as against INR 9,428 crore in the previous year, registering a growth of 13%. Adjusted PAT for H1 FY27 is INR 10,469 crore against INR 8,932 crore in the previous year, registering a growth of 17%. During Q2 FY27, we have accounted for dividend income of INR 658 crore from our subsidiaries and joint ventures in addition to INR 238 crore earned during Q1 FY27. Standalone regulated equity for conventional power business as on 30 September 2026 is INR 92,926 crore as against INR 94,544 crore as on September 2025. The reduction is due to transfer of coal mining business from NTPC Limited to wholly owned subsidiary company, NTPC Mining Limited. As regards the consolidated group financials, total income of the group for H1 FY27 is INR 1,05,857 crore as against INR 93,083 crore in H1 FY26, an increase of 14%.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: PAT for group for H1 FY27 is INR 14,247 crores as against previous year INR 11,334 crores, an increase by 26%. During H1 FY27, our subsidiaries earned a profit of INR 3,194 crores. NTPC's share of profit in JVs was INR 1,253 crores in H1 FY27. Consolidated regulated equity for the group stood at INR 1,21,786 crores as on 30 September 2026 as compared to INR 1,16,022 crores as on September last year. Coming to the NTPC Green Energy Limited highlights, consolidated revenue from operation increased by 58% to INR 2,045 crores in H1 FY27, while operating EBITDA grew by 60% to INR 1,818 crores as compared to H1 FY26. EBITDA margin remained at 89%. For the Q2 FY27, revenue from operations for NGEL group has increased to INR 938.16 crores from INR 612.29 crores in Q2 FY20, showing an increase by 53.22%.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Operating EBITDA has also increased to INR 829.69 crores in Q2 from INR 529.6 crores in the last year, which amounts to increase by 56.67%. I am pleased to inform that NTPC board has recommended first interim dividend for FY26-27, INR 3 per share, in line with the company's commitment to delivering value to its shareholders. Looking ahead, our priority is to turn India's growing electricity demand into sustainable growth for NTPC and NGEL. We will build on the complementary strength of our conventional generation portfolio and renewable energy business to deliver reliable power while supporting the country's energy transition. We are actively looking at C&I opportunities to look beyond DISCOMs. With over 37 gigawatt of capacity under construction, including 17 gigawatt of coal-based capacity, about 3.6 gigawatt of hydro, and around 16 gigawatt of renewables, our immediate focus is on timely project execution and maintaining maximum availability of our station.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Alongside this, we will strengthen fuel security by maximizing production from captive mines, diversified coal sourcing, and close coordination with suppliers and transport agencies. Energy storage will be a key priority as renewable capacity grows. We are progressing well on setting up storage at massive scale. We are also developing new opportunities in synthetic natural gas, ethanol, dimethyl ether, and urea. Nuclear energy remains an important part of our long-term growth strategy. Our priorities are to progress the Mahi Banswara project and further identify suitable sites for future projects, and build the technical and quality capabilities needed for nuclear projects development. Across these initiatives, we will remain focused on disciplined capital allocation, cost control, and operational excellence. Our aim is to balance growth with financial strength, meet the country's evolving power needs, and create lasting value for our shareholders. Thank you for joining us.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: We will now be happy to take your questions. I now hand over to Nuvama for the question and answer session. Thank you so much.
Operator: Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Mohit Kumar from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Mohit Kumar: Yeah. Good afternoon, sir, and congratulations on a very good quarter. My first question is, sir, demand has been very high last year month, leading to peak shortages, right? Is there indication from the Government of India to increase your thermal pipeline? Are you looking to start work on few more thermal plants this fiscal from the earlier 4 gigawatt additional pipeline which you had indicated?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Sorry, you are not audible. Can you repeat and be louder, please?
Mohit Kumar: Yes, yes. I will just. Sorry. Sir, demand has been very high in the last seven month, leading to peak shortages, right? My question is, are you looking to start work on few more thermal power plants in this fiscal or next fiscal? I think earlier you had indicated 4 gigawatt additional pipeline.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Yeah. As you know that our capacity under construction is already 17.32 GW. Moving ahead, we have plans to, for tendering out close to 4.8 GW further. This will be largely from Q1 and Q2 of the next year. This will comprise of an 800 MW at second stage of Jhabua. There will be another 800 MW from Talcher, stage 4. Then Talcher Kaniha, stage 3 will have two units of 800, which would become 1,600. Bhilai, we are planning a single unit of 800, and BRBCL stage 2 will be 800. So that adds to around 4,800. So 2,400, that is half of that, would come from a standalone, and 2,400 will be through the JV subsidiary. Beyond this also, we are continuously exploring, working on 3 to 4 GW on broad feasibility, examining the feasibility of this.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: If you take a bifurcation of this into pithead and non-pithead, again, there is a split is equal, 2,400 MW will be coming from pithead stations, and non-pithead will be 2,400 again. The estimated CapEx of all these things would be INR 67,000 crore. As you know that Lara stage 3, 1,600 MW, which was awarded in the Q2 of FY 2026-2027, hitherto we were showing it, this has been now shown under construction project.
Mohit Kumar: Understood. My second question is that it seems curtailments has impacted you negatively in this quarter in NTPC Green. When do you expect the intensity of curtailment to reduce significantly for our portfolio? Can you please quantify the revenue loss during the quarter because of curtailment?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: See, broadly speaking, this is a phenomena general across the country. Around 180 GW of evacuation capacity is under construction, largely in the Gujarat and the Rajasthan belt, through Khavda, Vataman, Khavda, or Navsari, Pune, HVDC Khavda, Nagpur, Fatehgarh, Beawar, and Bikaner. Besides this also, the Green Energy Corridor Phase-III envisages 135 GW of intrastate transmission capacity. According more specific to NGEL, our transmission constraint or the connectivity issue which we are facing will all be surmounted by next year, June, July, mid-July. Beyond which, we will not have this continued thing. Pending this, we are trying to optimize this through wherever possible through temporary GNA. The other significant thing which we would like to point out is wherever we are facing this problem, the PPA term get extended because once you have this connectivity, the PPA term starts.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: To that extent, we don't see this as a complete revenue loss. It gets shifted. The kind of revenue which we are getting through the TGNA, squarely we are able to cover other operational expenses, wind them, and interest. Only the depreciation, which is the book cost, doesn't get covered in this phenomena. We are trying to get over this issue shortly.
Mohit Kumar: My last question, sir. Would you like to revise your-
Jaikumar Srinivasan: You have to be louder again.
Mohit Kumar: Would you like to revise your RE capacity addition target given the fact that we've added only merely 1.3 GW, if I'm correct, in the H1?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: I would say that we had begun with an estimation of close to 8 gigawatt. When we are reviewing this today, we have added capacity close to 1,300 megawatt at the end of October. Our estimation is that another 3.5 gigawatt is something which we would be able to do the rest of this thing. Close to 16 to 15 gigawatt is something which would be on the ground, but which will be covered under the probably the delay in the transmission. So, the capacity constructed would be close to 6.5 gigawatt, but 1.5 gigawatt may found wanting for a transmission, which probably, as we move ahead, we will be getting for that. So, at this present juncture, we may have some little shortfall compared to what was the initial projection, which will be covered in the next year.
Mohit Kumar: Understood, sir. Understood, sir. Thank you and all the best, sir. Thank you.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mohit Pandey from Citi Research. Please go ahead.
Mohit Pandey: Yeah. Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a strong quarter. First question would be, is it possible to share the adjusted PAT for the consolidated entity for Q2?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Yeah. I reckon I had mentioned the adjusted PAT, but let me repeat that. You wanted for consolidated, is it?
Mohit Pandey: Yes. Yeah, yeah, consolidated.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Okay. For consolidated, the adjusted PAT would be INR 7,152 crore for Q2. As far as H1 is concerned, it would be INR 13,970. Would you like for standalone as well?
Mohit Pandey: No, sir. Standalone is there in the PPT. For the base quarter, Q2 FY2026 also, if you could share for the consolidated entity. Yeah.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Yeah. Base was INR 5,000 last year for Q2 and INR 10,809 for H1.
Mohit Pandey: Okay, sir. Thank you. And sir, if you can share color on both for the standalone and consolidated. If I look at the standalone, regulated equity is down because of the transfer of mines, but PAT is up mid-teens, right? And other income is also down. If you can share color on that. Similarly, for the consolidated PAT number, 40% growth. Yeah.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Hold on. Yeah. As I already mentioned, the regulated equity is down because of the transfer. Other income, there is a drop by INR 432. That is because interest from JV subsidiary, while it has gone up by INR 180 crores, the dividend from JV subsidiaries, we have received less by INR 481 crores. The LPS, late payment surcharge, is also dropped by 28%, which is reflective of a better collection efficiency, although. It really, of course, has reduced our LPS. That is broadly the reason which accounts for a INR 432 crores drop in the other income.
Mohit Pandey: Yeah. No, sir. My question was, despite the drop in other income, the profit growth is pretty strong. My question was around that. Yeah.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Oh, because profit is a different thing than a dividend payout. So profitability has come out of better efficiency.
Mohit Pandey: No, sir. Much ahead of the regulated equity growth. I was coming from that angle. Yeah.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Correct.
Mohit Pandey: To both. Yeah.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: That is my point. It is about the efficiency. There are O&M gains, that is operational gains.
Mohit Pandey: Understood, sir. So we can expect this trend broadly to continue, so profit growth to significantly exceed regulated equity growth in the coming quarters as well?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Yes.
Mohit Pandey: Because of this efficiency?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: We can fairly expect. Yes.
Mohit Pandey: Yeah, that is great to hear. Sir, and second question on Ratnagiri. Its profit is a function of availability or of generation? Just one clarification there.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Kindly repeat.
Mohit Pandey: For the Ratnagiri gas, where we have seen a strong increase in profit. Why? The profit is linked to availability or to generation?
Ravindra Kumar: It is linked to generation.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: It is because of generation. It is because of some of generation, which was possible, the demand, because of the increased demand.
Mohit Pandey: Understood. Understood. Sir, are there any plans similar to Sinnar Thermal for M&A with regards to any state plant? For Sinnar, what is the turnaround timeline that you may be looking at?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: We are targeting by December this year or January next, as far as Sinnar is concerned. Your first part of the question was, are we going for similar acquisitions, is it?
Mohit Pandey: Yes, sir. Yes.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: We are open to. No, we are always open to any kind of value accretive projects which are available through NCLT process or otherwise.
Mohit Pandey: Okay. Sir, last question is, was there any fixed cost under-recovery linked to coal or, yeah, in this quarter?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: No, as far as O&M, there are O&M gains, in fact, there is no. As far as fixed costs are concerned, we have significantly improved compared to the last year. The disincentive, how we coin it is INR 332 crores. This is half of what was there in the last year of the INR 625 crores. The disincentives have dropped, and the better seasons await us. We will be able to improve it further.
Mohit Pandey: Understood. Thank you so much.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your questions to two per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, we would request you to rejoin the queue. The next question is from the line of Apurva Bahadur from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Apurva Bahadur: Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, in your opening remarks, you commented that NTPC is actively looking at C&I opportunity. Can you give some color on this? Is it only for the renewables business, or is it for the thermal business as well? Secondly, you also commented on the BESS deployment by NTPC Green. When should we expect the first batteries to commission?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: See, we are actively pursuing on both the fronts, as you rightly said. I will take the second part of the question first, that we have an overall plan of close to 47 gigawatt-hours. Out of this, as we must have already shared with you, 5 gigawatt-hours coming from the thermal coal location. Broadly, we are 40 to 42 gigawatt-hours, which we are targeting. Here, broadly, this NGEL is initially targeting 2024 megawatt-hours on a standalone and co-located basis. Another 39,240 is we are targeting through whatever is the nighttime connectivity, non-solar connectivity, which is available to us. Here, we are also exploring the possibility of utilizing this as well as tying up at the substation level through grid operator on a grid scale. Both this thing generally takes around 12 to 18 months to set up this particular thing.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: You can expect some kind of progress in the next 17 to 18 months. As far as your other part of the question is concerned, I will divert this question to the Director of Projects, Mr. Shanmugha Sundaram.
Shanmugha Sundaram: Actually, they have come out with an expression of interest for looking at partners in the area of C&I, for the area of both power generation and heat. The EOI will be closing in the end of November. Then we will be able to know in which area we will be progressing further.
Apurva Bahadur: Okay, sir. We will probably set up coal plants for these partners for C&I as well. That is quite interesting. Okay.
Shanmugha Sundaram: Yes.
Apurva Bahadur: Great. Sir, secondly, on this Ratnagiri profit as well as I see that the profitability of THDC has also improved year-over-year significantly. Can you give some update on this? Is it one time? Is it a structural increase for THDC? I believe it is the Khurja project which has been commissioned. For Ratnagiri, what are the contours of the PPA? It is a take-or-pay arrangement, or how do we get paid?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Whatever is the revenue that you are See, there is an underlying PPA as far as Ratnagiri is concerned, which continues. There are issues over there. But right now, the sales what you see is through the market operation. Whatever is the opportunity available to trust the system requirement and markets. We are continuously engaging in exploring the market sales opportunities. That is as far as Ratnagiri is concerned. As regards THDC, the capacity of PSP has been added 500 MW. And capacity addition of Khurja 660 MW, the full effect of that will be seen in this year because we commissioned this in September last year. It had effect of part month, whereas this year, it will have a full effect. But in any case, the H1, there is a substantial difference.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: That is the reason we have enhanced INR 221 crores for both these reasons.
Apurva Bahadur: Thank you, sir. One last question on, if I can ask on this regulatory deferral number. There is an other item of INR 862 crores. I believe it refers to some sort of a depreciation expense for one-time expense, which has been recorded. What is this regarding, and is it recurring?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: No, it is kind of reversals of the excess depreciation till date of INR 862 crores. That is the reason for this, because this pertains to Bongaigaon coal station. But it will have nil impact on profitability because it will figure in both the sides of income and expenditure.
Apurva Bahadur: Sure. Sure, sir. Understood. Thanks a lot.
Operator: Thank you. A reminder to all the participants to limit your questions to two per participant. The next question is on the line of Sumit Kishore from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Sumit Kishore: Good evening. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is around capacity addition. For the H1, you have done about 2,398 MW for NTPC Group. What are your targets for FY27, FY28, FY29? If you can break them across thermal, RE, for NTPC Standalone, NTPC Group, and NGEL, please.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: As far as the guidance for FY27 is concerned, which I had elaborately set out based on earlier query from one of the participants, I will not repeat that. As far as FY28 is concerned, we are targeting a total of close to 9.6 GW, which will have thermal capacity of 1,460 MW, hydro of 444, and renewable capacity of 7,735 MW. Out of this, standalone would be 726, and JV subsidiary will contribute about 8,913, making it a total of 9,639 for the group as a whole. The year next, that is FY29, the target is 10,877 MW, which will have a broad breakup of 3,070 MW of thermal, no hydro, renewable will be 7,807 MW. This will be largely contributed by JVs and subsidiaries, which is 8,670, and standalone, there will be one unit of TTPS 3, Talcher 2, and Lara 2 units, 1,600.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: With three units, thermal units, contributing 2260, and remaining from JVs and subsidiaries. Thank you.
Sumit Kishore: Sir, for FY27, you had given details for NGEL mainly. For NTPC Group as a whole, what is the total expectation? If I missed it, can you please repeat it? For NTPC Group.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Yes. NTPC Group, the earlier expectation was 9.5 GW, which we are scaling it down based on the dispensation on the renewable side. It would be now close to 8 GW.
[Analyst]: Very good.
Operator: Sorry to interrupt you, sir. Can you please mute your line?
Sumit Kishore: This is not from my end, this is from somebody else. Yes, please go ahead.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Yeah. It would be 8 gigawatt that would be the revised estimates. Thermal would be the entire thing will be from renewable.
Sumit Kishore: No more thermal, yeah.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: That is why renewable.
Sumit Kishore: Okay.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: 1070 is already there. Yeah.
Sumit Kishore: Yeah, just one clarification on the slide in the NTPC deck, NGEL capacity addition in nine months is 1,136 megawatts. In the NGEL deck, it is 983 megawatts. I mean, which is the more updated number for the six-month period?
Ravindra Kumar: Yeah. Mr. Neeraj, introduce yourself.
Neeraj Sharma: Yeah. I am Neeraj Sharma, CFO NTPC Green Energy.
Sumit Kishore: Yes, sir.
Neeraj Sharma: As on 30 September, the number was what we have given in our NGEL KPH or key performance highlights. However, in NGEL, in our NTPC's number, the details up to 30 October have been given. That is why the difference is there.
Sumit Kishore: Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. The next question is on the line of Praveen Rasesh from PPFAS Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Praveen Rasesh: Hello. Yeah. I just had a question on our under-construction capacity under thermal and also our thermal capacity addition targets for FY32. If I see the quarterly PPT, the under-construction capacity is around more than 17 gigawatts. But if I look at our year-end analyst meet presentation, there the capacity addition target for FY32 was about 10 gigawatts in thermal. I just wanted to understand this discrepancy because it is 7 gigawatts.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: FY32?
Praveen Rasesh: Yeah.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: No, there is a Okay. By the end of 2032, some of the capacity would not have achieved COD. You are presupposing that the entire 17 under construction would have seen the operation, but some of that would extend beyond this. That is the difference.
Operator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nikhil Nigania from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Nikhil Nigania: Hi. Thank you, sir. My first question is on the renewable business. As you said, transmission has been a challenge for us and for others as well. Hence, our guidance has been cut. But what gives us confidence on again achieving 8 gigawatts next year or the year after? Because it has been a consistent trend and with no easy answers. I mean, how confident are we of achieving the numbers, or is there some other issue on ground why we have been missing our renewable addition targets?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: No, largely the issue is about transmission. But sometimes, when your transmission constraints are there, it does not pay to complete the project, spend on interest during construction. So, we tend to regulate it sometimes on the ground regarding expenditure. But largely, the issue is on the transmission, and this would have been largely surmounted in the next year. So we are fairly confident about the next year. But to add to that, I will request CEO NGEL to share that picture.
Sarit Maheshwari: Yeah. I am Sarit Maheshwari, CEO NTPC Green Energy Limited. Let me start by explaining a little bit on the capacity front. If you recall, we have been consistently saying that in FY27, FY28, and FY29, we would be doing, as a ballpark figure, around 8 gigawatts every year. See, if you look at, we have also been telling about the connectivity availability in each of these years. So if you see in FY27, as Director Finance has just explained, we had a connectivity of only 44% of this capacity. So what we did was that we back-ended the capacity addition generation. So you would find that significant amount of capacities will be coming in the third and the fourth quarters. To give you a little bit more flavor of the total capacity, we had said that initially we would be doing around 8,061 megawatts of capacity.
Sarit Maheshwari: And by the end of this financial year, the on-ground capacity that we would have erected would be around 6.35 gigawatts. So there is not much difference. The only difference that is arising out is because you are not seeing the COD happening. And this COD is primarily because of the bulk of the capacity being added in the Khavda region, wherein the transmission has got inadvertently delayed by almost more than a year. So that is why you are seeing that consistently there is a rolling back of this. We were to get the connectivity in October 2026, for our full capacity, which has now been moved to November 2027. Therefore, this delay is in the actual COD that you are seeing. But all the projects for FY27, 28, and 29, the work is in progress.
Sarit Maheshwari: Once these transmission constraints are over, you would see that these CODs would translate into real capacities.
Nikhil Nigania: Got it, sir. Thanks so much for the color. Moving on to the storage side, good to see progress on BESS. Wanted to understand, A, why is it taking us 12 to 18 months to set up a BESS plant? Any plans to do a merchant BESS plant? Lastly, on pump storage, we have been highlighting that we have got 16 sites or something in that range, but we don't see any news of ordering or plans to order any PSP assets. Wanted an update on those two fronts.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: I request Director Operations to take this.
Ravindra Kumar: Yeah, regarding battery, we are on track, if some contractors are not working, we are terminating and giving contract to others. Very well, we are on line, and we are pretty hopeful that by April, we will get all the units, all the battery commissioned.
Shanmugha Sundaram: Coming to the pump storage, we will be completing our first DPR, our terrorist in Maharashtra, Mumbai, by December. Then other DPR will be completed in March, that is for Amba. Then our subsidiary THDC and NEEPCO are working on PSPs. Once this DPR is completed and TEC is done, then we will be going for this PMC and further award.
Sarit Maheshwari: I would also like to add on the BESS capacities that we are putting up in NGEL. Your question was that why it takes around 12 to 18 months to this. Basically, these are utility-scale batteries, the largest container being almost of the order of only 5 megawatt hour. So when we are talking about such large quantities, both on the DC side as well as on the AC side, it does take this much of time. You would see bulk of our capacities that NGEL is putting as on the night connectivity will be showing its on-ground presence in FY29. A part of it will come in FY28 also. A share of capacities will be next year, wherein the work is already going on around 1,350 megawatts. That capacity will come by the mid of FY27.
Operator: Arihant sir, can you hear me? Arihant sir, can you hear me? Due to no response, we move on to the next participant. The next question is from the line of Mahesh Patil from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Mahesh Patil: Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My question is on the comment that we made on some new solutions with NGEL that we are planning, and we also mentioned C&I, where we are also interested in deploying thermal. Could you throw some light on this, exactly what we are doing? Is it some kind of hybrid kind of solution with renewables, thermal that we are planning for C&I? Which are the type of customers or industry we are targeting here? Any color on that?
Shanmugha Sundaram: It has been already told. We have come out with an expression of interest that will be closing on the end of November. Then we will see how we will move forward. It will be in the area of heat and generation and in all sorts of power supplies, whether it is renewable or hydro, thermal, whatever it is. We are trying to add to this C&I segment.
Operator: Mahesh sir, can you hear me?
Mahesh Patil: Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Atul Tiwari from JPM. Please go ahead.
Atul Tiwari: Yes, sir. Thanks a lot. My question is on the gas supply situation for Ratnagiri. What is the fuel cost that you are operating at right now, and is it LNG or some domestic source of gas?
Ravindra Kumar: Yeah, it is based on the LNG which is getting imported. The cost is varying from $16 to $32. Whatever is available in the spot, we are purchasing, or we are tying through long-term tie-ups. On average, we can say we are getting less than $28 or $29.
Atul Tiwari: Okay. Based on that average, what will be the fuel cost per kilowatt hour, roughly?
Ravindra Kumar: Approximately, it will come INR 26.
Atul Tiwari: 26 rupees, okay. Sir, on your BESS strategy, obviously we have seen you canceling contracts with some of the contractors who were not doing the work. But in the sector, at the same time, we are seeing some of your smaller competitors in the private sector directly tying up with Chinese suppliers and getting batteries much faster. Rather than going through some of these smaller contractors who ultimately delay the project, have you explored directly sourcing the batteries and installing and speeding up the process? We do need these batteries as quickly as possible to ride over these shortages.
Sarit Maheshwari: Yeah, you are very right. In fact, if you see, we were constrained by the GFR 144 rule of procurement, wherein we could not have directly imported from China. We have been pursuing actively with the government, and we have now been asked to procure directly, and we would therefore be going ahead with a 40-gigawatt-hour tender coming up soon, which would be an ICB tender. Procurement of it would be directly from all the Chinese or the other related, the places from where we were not able to source directly. So what you said, we are already on the way on it.
Atul Tiwari: Great. Good to know. Thank you, sir. Best of luck.
Operator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajesh Majumdar from 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.
Rajesh Majumdar: Yeah, good evening, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. I had a couple of questions. One is that, is it possible to give us a breakdown of the regulated equity of THDC, NEEPCO, Meja, and Patratu? These are the main ones, actually.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: We don't have it right now, but we will give you the breakup, share with you.
Rajesh Majumdar: Okay. Because a lot of growth is coming on the subs, so I was interested in knowing the regulated equity, yeah, of these ones.
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Prepare and we'll share.
Rajesh Majumdar: Okay. Right. My second question, sir, was how do we read into the increase in profitability of BRBCL? It is a regulated business. However, the PAT has gone by nearly more than INR 100 crores this quarter, this H1. How do we see the profits of this subsidiary going forward?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: BRBCL, we see the profit for Q2 has gone up by INR 64 crores. This is because there is a reduction in finance cost due to refinancing of term loan and scheduled repayment. The other is the impact of fly ash transportation, billing, and security expenses. We have billed that. Yeah.
Rajesh Majumdar: In terms of annualized PAT,
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Yeah.
Rajesh Majumdar: In terms of annualized PAT, how should we look at BRBCL now with the change in the refinancing, et cetera?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: You can see an improved trend compared to last year. I will not be able to say immediately whether, I mean, the H1, what you see the differential in the H1 can be exactly repeated in the H2. But yes, there will be, to the extent of that, the impact will be there for Finance cost will translate to a better margin.
Rajesh Majumdar: And sir, in NTPC Mining, what is the regulated return? Is it 14% or is it 15.5?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: It is 14%.
Rajesh Majumdar: Okay. Thank you, sir.
Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, we take that as the last question for the day. Now I would like to hand the conference over to Mr. Subhadip Mitra from Nuvama Wealth Management for the closing comments. Please go ahead.
Subhadip Mitra: Thank you. On behalf of Nuvama Wealth Management, I would like to thank the management of NTPC for giving us this opportunity to host the call. Sir, any closing comments from your side?
Jaikumar Srinivasan: Yeah, thank you. I thank all the participants who have joined this earnings call and would like to convey our gratitude to the investors and analysts for their participation and the trust and confidence reposed in NTPC. I also take this opportunity to thank the Government of India, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, and Ministry of Power for their continued guidance and support. My thanks to the fellow board members for their support. Also express our sincere appreciation to Nuvama Capital for organizing this earnings conference call and facilitating the interaction with investors. Any further queries or clarifications may be addressed to NTPC's Investor Relation Department at ir@ntpc.co.in. I will end here with warm greetings to all of you for the forthcoming Deepavali festival. Thank you so much.
Operator: On behalf of Nuvama Wealth Management Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and now you may disconnect your lines.
