India's Biggest Electricity Companies

The electricity sector in India had an installed capacity of 199.6 Gigawatt as of March 2012, the world's fifth largest.

Thermal power plants constitute 65 per cent of the installed capacity, hydroelectric about 21 per cent and rest being a combination of wind, small hydro, biomass, waste-to-electricity, and nuclear.

Let's take a look at some of the biggest electricity-producing companies in India.

Source: Green World Investor

NTPC

NTPC Limited (formerly National Thermal Power Corporation) is the largest Indian state-owned electric utilities company based in New Delhi.

It is listed in Forbes Global 2000 for 2011 ranked it 348th in the world. It is an Indian public sector company listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange in which at present the Government of India holds 84.5 per cent (after divestment the stake by Indian government in October, 2009) of its equity.

It was founded on November 7, 1975. NTPC's core business is engineering, construction and operation of power generating plants and providing consultancy to power utilities in India and abroad.

Although the company has 19 per cent of the total national capacity it contributes 29 per cent of total power generation due to its focus on high efficiency.

NHPC

NHPC Limited (formerly National Hydroelectric Power Corporation) is an Indian electric utilities company that was incorporated in the year 1975 with an authorised capital of Rs 2,000 million and with an objective to plan, promote and organise an integrated and efficient development of hydroelectric power in all aspects.

Later on NHPC expanded its objects to include other sources of energy like Geothermal, Tidal, Wind, etc

At present, NHPC is a schedule 'A' Enterprise of the Govt. of India with an authorised share capital of Rs 1,50,000 million.

In 2009-2010 NHPC made a profit after tax of Rs 2,090 crores (Rs 20.9 billion). An increase of 94 per cent than the previous year profit of Rs 1,050 crores (Rs 10.5 billion).

NHPC is among the top 10 companies in India in terms of investment. Department of Public Enterprise, Government of India recently conferred prestigious Miniratna status to it.

Tata Power

Tata Power is India's oldest private sector electric utility company. On March 22, 2011, it has announced partnership with Sunengy, to build India's first floating solar plant.

The firm started as the Tata Hydroelectric Power Supply Company in 1911, which amalgamated with the Andhra Valley Power Supply Company in 1916.

The thermal power stations of the company are located at Trombay in Mumbai, Mundra in Gujarat, Jojobera and Maithon in Jharkhand, Haldia in West Bengal and Belgaum in Karnataka.

Reliance Power

Reliance Power Limited, a part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, was established to develop, construct and operate power projects in the domestic and international markets.

Reliance Energy Limited, an Indian private sector power utility company along with the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group promotes Reliance Power.

Along with its subsidiaries, it is presently developing 13 medium and large-sized power projects with a combined planned installed capacity of 33,480 MW. Reliance Natural Resources merged with Reliance Power in 2010.

Adani Power

Adani Power Limited is the power business arm of Indian business conglomerate Adani Group with head office at Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Adani Power Limited is ranked number 334 in top companies in India in Fortune India 500 list of 2011.

The company currently operates five supercritical boilers of 660MW each (as per March 2012) at Mundra, Gujrat. It also operates a mega solar plant of 40MW at Surendra nagar, Gujarat.

It is India's first company to achieve the supercritical technology. The plant is the only thermal power plant in india to be certified by UN under CDM.

Damodar Valley Corporation

Damodar Valley Corporation is a thermal and hydro power generating public organisation of India. DVC emerged as a culmination of attempts made over a whole century to control the wild and erratic Damodar river.

The river spans over an area of 25,000 sq km covering the states of Bihar (now Jharkhand) and West Bengal.

Entrusted with the responsibilities of providing the vital input power for industrial growth in the resource rich Damodar Valley region, DVC has been practically operating as a pioneer, using latest available technologies to supply bulk power at reasonable rates to the major industries.

DVC has maintained its lead role in the eastern region by adopting itself to the challenges of time and technology during the course of last 64 years. DVC has been generating and transmitting power since 1953.

Lanco Infratech

Lanco Infratech Limited is a large Indian business conglomerate involved in construction, power, real estate, and several other segments.

Lanco Infratech Limited became a listed entity in November 2006 following the Initial Public Offering of shares. Lanco's gross revenue before elimination as on March 2011 was over $2.56 billion.

SJVN

The SJVN Ltd was incorporated on May 24, 1988, as a joint venture of the Government of India and the Government of Himachal Pradesh to plan, investigate, organise, execute, operate and maintain Hydro-electric power projects. The present authorised share capital of SJVN is Rs 7,000 crores (Rs 70 billion).

The Nathpa Jhakri Hydro - Electric Power Station - was the first project undertaken by SJVN for execution. In addition to the financial assistance from the World Bank, SJVN has also been financed as loan by a Consortium of European Banks, the Power Finance Corporation and various domestic commercial banks.

Nuclear Power Corporation of India

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited is a government-owned corporation of India based in Mumbai. One of the public sector undertakings, it is wholly owned by the Union Government and is responsible for the generation of nuclear power for electricity.

NPCIL is administered by the Department of Atomic Energy. NPCIL is the only power utility company in India which uses nuclear fuel sources. NPCIL was created in September 1987 as public limited company under the Companies Act 1956

CLP Power

The CLP Group and its holding company, CLP Holdings Ltd, is a Hong Kong electric company that has businesses in a number of Asian markets and Australia.

Incorporated in 1901 as China Light and Power Company Syndicate, its core business remains the generation, transmission, and retailing of electricity.

In recent years, CLP has sought to expand outside of its native Hong Kong accomplishing this through mergers and acquisitions.

Overseas markets it has entered include Australia, India, Laos, Mainland China, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand.

Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited is a government-owned lignite mining and power generating company in India. NLC operates the largest open-pit lignite mines in India, presently mining 24 MT of lignite and has an installed capacity of 2740 MW of electricity.

NLC has well-developed township in Neyveli in the district of Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu. It is well connected by road along the Chennai-Thanjavur State Highway and Pondicherry-Tiruchirappalli Road.

A dedicated rail track with a railway station was constructed to transport heavy machineries for the mining and the power generation industries.

Torrent Power is one of the leading brands in the Indian power sector, promoted by the Rs 9,592 crore (Rs 95.92 billion) Torrent Group.

The high points of Torrent's foray into power however were the acquisitions of two of the India's oldest utilities - The Surat Electricity Company Ltd and The Ahmedabad Electricity Company Ltd.

Torrent has a generation capacity of 1647.5 MW and distributes power to more than 3 million customers annually in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Surat, Bhiwandi and Agra.

The company is currently implementing a 1200 MW gas based power project at Dahej in South Gujarat.

Image: Labourers load coal on trucks at Bari Brahamina on the outskirts of Jammu.
Photographs: Mukesh Gupta/Reuters