RN Nayak, Chairman & Managing Director , Power Grid Corporation of India, is a first class Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from REC Rourkela and holds an M.Tech(Electrical) from IIT Kharagpur. Nayak has over 34 years of work experience, primarily in the power sector. He has worked for more than 20 years in POWERGRID as a founder member and handled various multi-disciplinary functions like Engineering, Load Dispatch & Communication, Grid Management, Contract Management, Quality Assurance and Inspection, Telecom, Research & Development, Human Resources, Operation and Maintenance and Commercial. Prior to joining POWERGRID in 1991, he has worked for about 7 years in NTPC and had a stint with SAIL. He has introduced many new technologies in the Indian Power Sector such as EMS & SCADA Project, ±800 KV HVDC and 1200 KV AC UHV. He has been awarded P.M. Ahluwalia Award; is a Senior Member of IEEE and has been honored with Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) in Electrical Engineering Field.
Power Grid Corporation of India (POWERGRID), is discharging its responsibilities efficiently in Construction and Operation & Maintenance of inter-State transmission system and operation of Regional power grids. It has been notified as the Central Transmission Utility (CTU) of the country. Based on its impeccable performance in a short span of time, POWERGRID was recognized as the Miniratna Category–I PSU by GoI w.e.f. Oct’98. POWERGRID achieved many milestones & established benchmarks in various areas of its business operations and is playing a strategic role in Indian Power sector in establishing & maintaining transmission infrastructure. Recognising POWERGRID’s sterling performance, Government of India conferred the status of “Navratna” to POWERGRID w.e.f 1st May, 2008.
Anil Mascarenhas of IIFL gives you the key highlights of a media interaction post the results where RN Nayak says, “POWERGRID has planned Rs. 1000bn
capital expenditure in XII Plan including Rs. 200bn in FY13.”
Exceeding investment plans
POWERGRID is the only Company in the Power Sector which has exceeded XI Plan investment target of Rs.550bn. Further, POWERGRID has also planned Rs.1,000bn capital expenditure in XII Plan including Rs.200bn in FY13. The capital expenditure will be mostly for transmission jobs. In FY13, we expect the central sector to add 6,200 MW, independent power producers 3,800 MW and ultra mega power plants 1,600 MW.
The quarterly numbers
POWERGRID has posted a net profit of Rs.10.32bn for the fourth quarter of FY12, an increase of 37% against Rs.7.51bn reported during the corresponding quarter ended March 31, 2011. Total Income for Q4 rose to Rs.34.09bn, up 32 % from Rs.25.80bn in the corresponding year-ago period. POWERGRID had registered a net profit of Rs.32.55bn over a turnover of Rs.107.85bn in FY12, registering a growth of about 19 % in turnover and 21 % in Net Profit compared to FY11.
We have declared interim dividend of 8% and proposed a final dividend of 13.1 % for FY12 against 17.5 % total dividend paid last fiscal.
Transmission & Transformation
At present, POWERGRID is operating about 93,000 ckt km of transmission lines along with 151 Sub-stations with transformation capacity of more than 1,24,500 MVA. With the use of state-of-the art preventive maintenance techniques, average availability of transmission system during the year FY12 was maintained at 99.94%.
POWRGRID commissioned assets about Rs.141bn up to March 2012. Inter-regional power transmission capacity of 5600 MW was added during FY12 enhancing the total Inter-regional transmission capacity of National Grid to about 28,000 MW.
New opportunities abound
Besides transmission, grid management, consultancy and telecom, POWERGRID will look at opportunities in inter-state transmission systems, smart grid, asset management and engineering, procurement and construction.
We see short-term open access transaction prices coming down from current levels especially once the southern and western region inter-connectivity is completed by March 2014.
Telecom towers
We want to expand our presence in the telecom space. With a network of about 25,000 km offering value added services to telecom companies and government organizations, we are the only utility in the country having overhead optic fibre network using OPGW (Optical Ground Wire) on power transmission lines.
We have also offered infrastructure sharing to a telecom infrastructure service provider for mounting telecom antennas on the power line towers. 800 towers have been offered for installation of the antennas.
Adding to the network
We plan to add 11,000 circuit kilometre (ckm) network, 45,000 mva (mega volt ampere) and over 20 substations during the year.
Beyond India
We are working countries including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Dubai and Nigeria. We are also looking at Vietnam, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tajakistan for construction of transmission lines and sub-stations.