Coal India, NTPC 'break the jinx', report growth in Q2

Growth in power demand remains in negative though it is picking up as coronavirus-related restrictions are eased.

National miner Coal India Ltd and state-owned NTPC Ltd, India's largest power generator, reported growth in mining and power generation in the second quarter of the current financial year.

CIL recorded a 10 per cent growth in both production and offtake in July-September compared to the same period last year.

In the first quarter, CIL reported 0.1 per cent growth in production.

CIL officials said the company registered its highest growth in September: a 31.6 per cent rise in production and 31.7 per cent in offtake.

Supplies to power and non-power sector consumers and rake loading also registered growth, said an official.

“Now that we broke the growth jinx in output and off-take, which were weighed down by the pandemic induced slowdown, we expect to better our performance in the ensuing months.

"We aim to reclaim as much of the lost ground as possible during the rest of the fiscal,” said a senior official of the company, adding that the H2 performance is usually higher in terms of production and supplies.

NTPC’s growth in power generation was 13.3 per cent in Q2, compared to the same period last year.

During the first quarter, NTPC’s generation fell by 12.1 per cent over last year, mostly owing to the country-wide lockdown and bulk electricity buyers shutting shops.

NTPC said in a statement the power generation in first half of the current financial year from April to September 2020, was 145.87 BU, higher by 0.4 per cent than the same period last year.

While the country opens up after a lockdown to contain the coronavirus and industries resume operations, growth in power demand remains negative.

The peak power demand growth in September,  was lower by 1.33 per cent over last year.

The negative growth has however narrowed down from lockdown months when it fell as much as 24 per cent in April.

Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters