First published in Cleantech magazine, January 2011. Copyright Cleantech Investor 2011

By Andrew Hore

KSK Power Ventur is the largest of the quoted Indian power generators. The company has a generating capacity of 549MW, with 52MW of wind power generation in place. A further 313MW should start to generate power by next March, which will take KSK’s capacity to more than 900MW.

KSK Mahanadi, a 3,600MW power plant in Chhattisgarh, is under active construction and a further 6GW of production projects are at early stages of development, although these are thermal and hydro projects.

Most of the generating capacity is held through the company’s India-listed subsidiary KSK Energy Ventures. The company’s wind power assets, acquired during the six months to September 2010, generated 7% of the company’s power during that period. KSK Energy Ventures intends to make the most of the tax breaks on offer as well as optimise the tariffs received from the wind power that it sells.

KSK Power Ventur’s wholly-owned subsidiary KSK Energy is also looking to expand in wind and solar. The intention is to grow the business in such a way that it is not dependent on government subsidies and grants.

KSK Power Ventur’s revenues jumped from $24.4 million to $82.6 million in the six months to September 2010 as new capacity came on stream. Even though overheads have increased to cope with expansion, operating profit improved from $15 million to $40.3 million. Capital investment has increased borrowings and there was a net interest charge in the period, compared with net interest income plus a number of one-off gains the previous year.

The company’s revenues will continue to grow in the second half of the financial year as there is a greater contribution from new capacity.

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