Kolkata: Public sector power utility Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) will be corporatised soon — unbundling into at least three entities for transmission, generation and distribution to achieve greater efficiency. On Wednesday, Union power minister Manohar Lal asked DVC to expedite the unbundling exercise during a review meeting at the power utility’s headquarters in Kolkata.He also suggested the board could explore the IPO route to raise resources.
Established in 1948, DVC is an integrated power major spread across a command area of 24,235 sq km in Bengal and Jharkhand.
“The plan for corporatisation was on the agenda, but the minister wanted to expedite the process. The existing shareholding among Centre, Bengal and Jharkhand govts will remain intact,” DVC chairman S Suresh Kumar said after the review meeting.
The minister during the meeting stressed the need to increase the renewable energy share in DVC’s total energy portfolio.
DVC plans to install an additional capacity of nearly 10,000 MW, ramping up its total capacity to about 16,700 MW. This would comprise 3,720 MW of thermal power, 4,000 MW of solar power and 2,500 MW from a pump storage power plant. The total capex is estimated to be between Rs 50,000 crore-60,000 crore. The current installed capacity of DVC is nearly 6,700 MW, of which 6540MW is thermal. At the moment, its green energy portfolio is meagre.