Essar plans power trading foray

Essar Electric Power Development Corporation Ltd, an Essar Group company, has approached Central Electricity Regulatory Commission for a category 'C' licence to undertake 200-500 million units of inter-state trading a year.

The company has a net worth of Rs 7.67 crore (Rs 76.7 million), slightly higher than the Rs 7.5 crore (Rs 75 million) net worth stipulated by the power regulator for a category 'C' license.

There was ample scope of trading opportunities in the country and the company planned to increase trading volumes over the next few years depending upon business conditions, EEPDCL director A K Srivastava, who is also managing director of Essar Power Ltd, said in the application.

The company would be supported by Essar Power Ltd and in-house trading experts of other Essar Group companies, he said, adding being a part of the group would also give the company financial expertise to raise resources in future.

If approved, EEPDCL would be only the second firm after state-run MMTC Ltd with a category 'C' license. So far, 17 companies have received trading licences of which 10 have a category 'A' license, which is for trading only 100 million units of electricity in a year.

Only five companies - Tata Power Trading, Reliance Energy Trading, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd, PTC India and Adani Exports - have a category 'F' license, which allows trading of more than 1000 million units of electricity in a year.