OREANDA-NEWS. Essar Power Gujarat Ltd. (EPGL), which owns and operates the 1,200 MW Salaya Power plant in Gujarat, today said that it has closed financial year 2014-15 with superior performance. EPGL is a subsidiary of Essar Power Ltd., one of India’s leading private sector power producer and meets about 10% of its home state’s power peak demand.

During the year, availability to Gujarat Urja Vikas Ltd. (GUVNL), the state utility, stood at 80% for the second consecutive year, despite severe challenges on the water supply front. Availability in September 2014 stood at 98%, which was highest ever. Off take by GUVNL in FY15 was 21% higher than in FY14. Plant load factor for the year stood at 63% and 6,609 million units of electricity was produced, which is about 23% higher than FY14. Merchant Sales was at 411 Million Units, an increase of 89% over FY14.

Not just in operational area, EPGL fared excellently in Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) parameters also. In November 2014, EPGL received the Certification from DNV-GL for the Integrated Management of Safety (IMS). The company continues to be environment friendly and has earned rebate on water cess for the third consecutive year, indicating its commitment to environment protection and compliance to regulations. EPGL achieved 100% utilization of fly ash generated by disposal of the same to cement and brick manufacturers. The company recorded zero Lost Time Injury (LTI) during the year and recorded 3.93 million man hours LTI free, demonstrating its commitment to safety of both people and machines.

On community services front, EPGL touched more than 28,000 lives during the year through various CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programs in the area of civic infrastructure, agriculture development, and animal husbandry initiatives. Four villages, namely Nana Mandha, Mota Mandha, Kajurda & Parodiya, are being provided with potable drinking water supply besides providing fodder for cattle. Additionally, Essar Gram Vikas Kendra (EGVK) at Parodiya Village has been set up with GRISERV (BAIF) to implement need based community driven initiatives related to Water Resource Development, Fodder Development, Agriculture Development, Animal Husbandry etc. EPGL is partnering with Government under the PPP (Public Private Partnership) mode to provide safe and potable drinking water through pipelines to the neighboring villages, which is likely to be completed in 2015-16.

Going forward, the company expects to finish some of the associated infrastructure projects for the power plant viz, sea water pipeline system and coal conveyor corridor to improve its operations and reduce the carbon footprint even further, a step in the right direction.

About Essar Power
Essar Power is one of India's leading private power producers with over 14-year operating track record. Essar Power owns and operates power plants in India and Canada with a total generation capacity of 6,700 MW.