Adani Power Ltd. and Torrent Power Ltd. secured separate contracts worth a total of ₹32,500 crore (about $3.7 billion) from Madhya Pradesh to build coal-fired power plants, underscoring India’s continued reliance on the fossil fuel to meet its energy needs.
MP Power Management Co. Ltd. awarded Torrent Power a ₹22,000-crore contract for a 1,600 MW ultra-supercritical plant, according to an exchange filing on Saturday. Adani Power won a ₹10,500-crore contract to construct an 800 MW coal-based power plant in the state.
Both companies will supply power from these plants to Madhya Pradesh’s power distribution company at tariffs just above ₹5.8/kWh, the filings showed. Torrent Power said its project marks its largest investment in the sector to date and is expected to generate annual revenue of ₹6,500 crore.
The deals highlight India’s increasing dependence on coal even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi encourages more investments in clean energy. The country plans to install 500 GW of renewable energy power capacity by the end of the decade, with major corporations committing billions of dollars to support the target.
India is also moving ahead with plans to expand coal-based power capacity. The government’s roadmap, unveiled in late 2023, calls for adding almost 88 GW of new coal-based power by early 2032, a 63% increase from an earlier proposal that year.
On Friday, Adani Power and Torrent Power shares fell 0.92% and 1.55%, respectively, on the BSE even as the benchmark ended the day 0.34% lower at 79,809.65 points.