Power Grid plans capex of Rs 25,000 crore for FY18

Mumbai: State-run Power Grid Corporation, which has reported a 22 percent rise in standalone net profit for March 31 quarter at Rs 1,916.36 crore, has planned a capex of Rs 25,000 crore for this fiscal.

"We have been aggressively expanding and participating in all possible opportunities. For the current fiscal, we have planned a capex of Rs 25,000 crore and we will raise nearly Rs 17,500 crore through debt," company's Chairman and Managing Director IS Jha told reporters here today.

He said the company already has Rs 1.30 trillion worth of projects on hand which it will have to execute over the next 3-4 years.

"We have spent nearly Rs 39,000 crore on them so far and have a balance capex of Rs 91,000 crore. But given the scale of projects we have been undertaking we will need to raise funds regularly as we have been doing every year," Jha said.

Power Grid's Director Finance K Sreekant said the company will raise funds through issue of bonds both domestic and international and also through bilateral and multilateral funding sources and forex borrowings.

"We are also looking at raising funds through masala bonds. We keep evaluating all the options for raising funds and as and when we require we do it," he said.

Jha said apart from the current areas that the company is operating including transmission and telecom, it is also exploring opportunities in battery storage and setting up vehicle charging stations.

"We are in talks with various states for this opportunity. Also, we are aggressively participating in the 24,000 rkm railway electrification project. Apart from this, the Rs 20,000 crore worth of solar and wind projects which are likely to come up, is also a growth opportunity," he added.

PGCIL had reported a standalone net profit of Rs 1,568.58 crore in the quarter ended on March 31, 2016. Its total income rose to Rs 7,054.45 crore in Q4 FY17 from Rs 5,984.49 crore a year ago.

The company's standalone net profit increased to Rs 7,520.15 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 5,948.50 crore in 2015-16, while its total income also rose to Rs 26,581.41 crore in FY17 from Rs 21,243.30 crore in FY16.

As on April 30, Power Grid is operating about 139,700 ckms of transmission lines along with 220 sub-stations with transformation capacity of over 292,500 MVA.