Torrent Power Limited, one of India’s leading private power utilities, has landed a massive new project in Madhya Pradesh. The company has received a Letter of Award (LoA) from MP Power Management Company Limited (MPPMCL) to supply power from a 1,600 MW coal-based power plant on a long-term basis.
The LoA comes after Torrent Power won a competitive bidding process at a tariff of ₹5.829 per unit (kWh).
Torrent will build a greenfield 2×800 MW Ultra-Supercritical thermal power plant in Madhya Pradesh under the Design, Build, Finance, Own, and Operate (DBFOO) model. All the electricity generated will be supplied to MPPMCL.
Fuel supply won’t be an issue either, MPPMCL will arrange coal under the SHAKTI Policy of the Ministry of Coal. The plant must be up and running within 72 months of signing the power purchase agreement (PPA).
With a total investment of around ₹22,000 crore, this will be Torrent Group’s single largest investment in the power sector.
The plant will use Ultra-Supercritical technology, which is considered more efficient and produces significantly lower carbon emissions compared to older, conventional thermal plants.
Speaking about the development, Jinal Mehta, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Torrent Power, said, “This investment by Torrent Power will play a significant role in achieving the Government of India’s target of 80 GW of additional coal-based capacity by 2032. It will also help support the country’s economic growth and provide much-needed base load capacity to stabilize the grid.”
Jobs and impact
The mega project is expected to create 8,000–10,000 direct and indirect jobs during construction and around 1,500 jobs during operations.
Once commissioned, this addition will boost Torrent Power’s overall capacity to ~9.6 GWp of locked-in generation and 3 GW of pumped storage capacity. This includes:
- 4.9 GWp of installed generation capacity
- 3.1 GWp of renewable projects under development
- 1.6 GW of new thermal capacity
- 3 GW of pumped storage capacity
