Summary

India’s thermal power sector has seen a lot of initiatives by the government in the recent past to address structural issues plaguing it. These include implementation of the UDAY scheme to strengthen the weakest link of distribution, allocation of new coal linkages under SHAKTI to address fuel supply constraints, and auction of medium-term PPAs to address offtake issues.
 

Then there’s the ongoing resolution process for stressed thermal plants, which, if successfully implemented, will decide the fate of over Rs 1 lakh crore of debt.
 

Depending on the residual debt after resolution, the cost of power generation for these capacities can reduce significantly. This can change the tide for stressed capacities given the healthy power demand growth of 6-7% and slowdown in new capacity addition.

To show how the initiatives have fared, and to answer relevant questions, CRISIL is conducting a webinar on the thermal power sector, where its experts will talk on the following topics:

• Power demand-supply dynamics and this translating to new PPAs
• Sufficiency of coal to meet the increasing power demand
• The road ahead for capacities at risk
• What next for discoms after three years of UDAY

The webinar will include a presentation and a panel discussion, followed by a Q&A session.