Coastal Energen raises Rs 1,950 cr for Mutiara power project from SBI-led consortium

Coastal Energen, part of the $ 1.75-billion Coal & Oil (C&O) Group, has raised working capital of Rs 1,950 crore to complete its 1,200 Mw Mutiara Thermal Power Plant in Tuticorin.

The company announced that SBI and a consortium of banks including Punjab National Bank, Central bank of India, Indian Bank, J&K Bank, Andhra Bank and Canara Bank has completed documentation on March 28, 2015.

The company is expected to get some more funding from large Infrastructure finance companies including India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL) and IFCI Limited. It also said that the first unit of 600 MW in Mutiara plant went live on December 23, 2014 and has has generated over 1 billion Units till date with a revenue of over Rs 500 cr ($81 mn). It has consumed over 800,000 metric tonnes of coal mostly financed and supplied by large Japanese and Indian trading houses, said the company.

"Monthly coal consumption is expected to be close to 500,000 metric tonnes when its second unit of 600 Mw gets commissioned by the end of 2015," it said.

The company, in December, said that in nine months from December its second unit, with the same capacity will commence. Total cost of the project is Rs 7,600 crore, of which Rs 6,200 crore will be invested by December.

Foundation stone for the project was laid in December 2009, after several hurdles and challenges the project has started Power supply to TANGEDCO, power generation and distribution arm of Tamil Nadu Government, said Ahmed Buhari, Founder President & CEO, Coastal Energen in December.

The first unit was synchronised to the grid on September 7, 2014 and attained full load of 600 Mw on December 2, 2014. The power generated from this unit is tied up with TANGEDCO under a 15 years Power Purchase Agreement. With the declaration of COD, the supply of 600 Mw (Gross) of Power will commence immediately.

The company is hopeful that it would attract financial institutions, considering it has addressed all the concerns. TANGEDCO will procure the power for Rs 4.91 per Mw for the next 15 years.

The project is coming at a time the power crisis is expected to increase in southern parts of the country, led by Tamil Nadu. The deficit is around 9,254 MW or -22 per cent in the southern region.