BHUBANESWAR: PSU giants National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) and NLC India Limited on Wednesday signed a joint venture-cum-shareholders’ agreement for a 50:50 JV company (JVC) to establish a 1,080 MW thermal captive power plant (CPP) at Angul.
The agreement was executed in the presence of Union Minister of Coal and Mines G Kishan Reddy at New Delhi.
NALCO has embarked on a 0.5 million tonne per annum (MTPA) aluminium smelter expansion at Angul with commissioning targeted by 2030-31. This expansion would require an additional 800 MW of captive power. To meet the requirement, the proposed JVC will develop a 4×270 MW brownfield thermal capacity addition within NALCO’s existing CPP premises at Angul in a phased manner.
The company will enter into a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with NALCO for 100 per cent off-take of power and a long-term fuel supply agreement with NLC for coal.
The company will also pursue 200-250 MW of firm renewable energy in line with renewable consumption obligation norms with NLC extending support through long-term power purchase agreements or group captive arrangements from its renewable energy portfolio.
The JVC will have its registered office at Chennai and corporate office at Bhubaneswar. NALCO and NLC each will hold 50 per cent equity.
Earlier in February, a non-binding MoU was signed between the two central PSUs to establish the broad framework for collaboration in thermal and renewable energy project development and long-term coal supply arrangements.
Additional secretary to Ministry of Coal Sanoj Kumar Jha, also with additional charge of CMD of NLC, CMD of NALCO Brijendra Pratap Singh, joint secretary, Ministry of Mines Vivek Kumar Bajpai, director (projects & technical) Jagdish Arora, director (finance) of NALCO Abhay Kumar Behuria and director (finance), NLC Prasanna Kumar Acharya were present.
While NLC has over six decades of experience in lignite and coal mining and supply, it also has its Machhakata coal mine, located in close proximity of the Angul.