India’s biggest electricity producer, National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd. (NTPC), is planning to reduce its capital spending amid the country’s slowing demand growth and surplus capacity.
According to Kulamani Biswal, finance director of NTPC, the company, which accounts for about 13% of the nation’s capacity, plans to spend Rs. 23,000 crore ($3.6 billion) as capital expenditure this financial year. That is about 18% lower than what it spent in the previous year and the first year-on-year decline in records going back to the year ended March 2013, company filings show.
The fall in capital expenditure comes as demand growth for electricity slows in India, keeping power plants under-utilized and impeding new investments. The expansion in renewable and a steep fall in solar and wind tariffs are also making producers cautious about building new coal-fired power plants.