APRIL 20238TOP STORIES A800 MW unit at Adani Power Ltd's (APL) thermal plant in Jharkhand has reportedly started operating commercially. The Adani Group company stated in a filing that the second unit of the 1600 MW project is also nearing completion and will likely be commissioned soon. This is to advise you that unit 1 of the Adani Power (Jharkhand) Limited's (`APJL') 2x800 MW ultra-supercritical power facility, located in Godda, has achieved commercial operations, it stated. APJL, a fully-owned subsidiary of Adani Power, would provide the Bangladesh Power Development Board with electricity through a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for a matching net capacity of 748 MW from unit 1. With effect from April 6th, 2023, `APJL has begun processing its claims under the PPA', it declared. The second 800 MW unit is currently nearing completion and will shortly be put into service. For the quarter that ended on December 31st, 2022 (Q3FY23), Adani Power's consolidated net profit decreased 96 percent year-over-year to Rs.8.7 crore, while its consolidated revenue from operations increased 44.8 percent year-over-year to Rs.7,764.4 crore. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation, or EBITDA, for the entire company fell 17 percent to Rs. 1,469.7 crore. On the National Stock Exchange, Adani Power shares ended the day on Thursday with a 1.1 percent gain, closing at 192.20 per share. Due to a public holiday, the financial markets in India were closed on Friday. In India, the total debt owed by the electricity distribution industry increased to Rs.6.20 lakh crore in 2021­22, a 24 percent increase from 2019­20. Yet throughout the course of the two years, the rate of debt addition declined, according to Power Finance Corporation Ltd.'s annual report on the industry. In 2021­2022 the sector's debt increased by Rs.33,800 crore, which is 60 percent less than the Rs.85,500 crore increase in the previous fiscal year. State government loan takeovers, improvements in subsidy disbursement, and better bill collections, the sector's financial deficit almost halved in 2021­22 compared to 2019­20. Financial deficit is a crucial metric for assessing the sector's financial stability. The report used a cash-adjusted basis to assess the deficit, putting more emphasis on tracking cash movements than recorded revenue. Due to the effect of COVID-19, the performance in 2021­22 was compared to the two fiscals before that.Power distribution firms' total technical and commercial losses decreased by 3.4 percentage points and 5 percentage points, respectively, from the prior year and from 2020-21 to 16.5 percent in 2021­22. According to the research, capital expenditure addition decreased to Rs.48,000 crore in FY22 from Rs.59,000 crore the year before and Rs.83,000 crore in 2019­20, which is the cause for concern. For long-term rewards, the industry should aggressively concentrate on modernizing its billing system, it suggested. The amount of subsidies paid out by state governments in 2021­22 was 102 percent of the total amount booked, up from 85 percent the year before and 95 percent in 2019­20. ADANI POWER'S JHARKHAND UNIT STARTS OPERATIONS, SUPPLYING ELECTRICITY TO BANGLADESHINDIA DISCOM DEBT SURGES 24 PERCENT TO RS.6.2 LAKH CRORE IN 2021-22
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