OREANDA-NEWS. Essar Power Gujarat Ltd (EPGL), which owns and operates a 1,200 MW imported coal-fired thermal power plant at Salaya in Gujarat’s Devbhumi Dwarka district, has recorded an impressive 90% growth in EBITDA for the quarter year ended 30 June 2016. This spike in performance can be attributed to significantly higher plant availability, a  32% increase in energy sales, and a 13% reduction in the coal cost per unit because of a widening coal basket, e-auction based procurement, falling coal prices and substantial efficiency improvements.

In Q1 FY17, plant availability improved by 82%, leading to a robust growth in sales, which stood at Rs 522 crore quarter-on-quarter—up from Rs 396 crore in Q1 FY16. Operational efficiencies, especially the heat rate, improved by about 1.5% following turbine overhaul in one of the units. Finance costs for Q1 FY17 were lower by 12%, leading to a PAT of Rs 1 crore against a net loss of Rs 126 crore in the corresponding quarter in the previous fiscal.

Mr Sushil Maroo, Executive Vice Chairman, Essar Power, said: “Essar Power Gujarat’s performance is in line with our goal to harness the maximum potential of our assets through efficiency gains. We are committed to replicate this success across all our plants.”

According to Mr Ramesh Kumar, Managing Director, EPGL: “We have had an excellent quarter not only because of lower coal cost, but also owing to the fact that we have been able to operate efficiently. Our focus is to further bring down operation & maintenance costs, which have been consistently below CERC norms. We are on course to harness greater efficiencies and significant cost savings with the expected commissioning of a sea water intake system and coal conveyor corridor.”

EPGL has received the Award for Excellence in Energy Efficiency at the 17th CII National Awards held at Hyderabad. It also received the award for the Most Useful Presentation at the same event.