NTPC: National Thermal Power Corporation

NTPC Limited is an Indian statutory corporation which is also known as National Thermal Power Corporation Limited. NTPC limited is incorporated under the company's act of 1956, and it is engaged in the generation of electricity and allied activities. NTPC limited is under the jurisdiction control of the Ministry of Power, Government of India, and headquarter of this body is located in New Delhi (Capital City).

The core function of NTPC limited is the generation as well as distribution of the electricity to all the State electricity boards of India. This is not the only function of this body, and it also undertakes turnkey and consultancy project contracts. But there is a catch there, and that is NTPC limit only take those turnkey and consultancy projects, which includes project management, operation and management of power plants, engineering and construction management.

A brief structure of NTPC limited

Here, in this section, we are providing you with a table that includes basic and brief details about NTPC limited.

NTPC limited

NTPC: About

In this section, we will discuss the NTPC limited corporation and its highlighted points. We will also discuss the about section of NTPC limited as following:

• NTPC Limited is the largest power company in India which has a total capacity of 62,086 MW electric power generation.
• As per the updated data of 2021, NTPC generates 300 billion units of electricity in a year.
• Although the corporation's 25% of total power generation contributes to the approx. 16% of the total national capacity. This is because the corporation focuses more on operating its power plants at a higher efficiency level, i.e., approx. 80.2% against the actual national PLF rate of 64.5%.
• Other than electric power generation, the corporation has also ventured into coal mining activities and oil and gas exploration.
• NTPC was founded by the government of India in the year 1975 (7 November 1975 to be exact), and since then, jurisdiction control of the corporation is under the government of India (Ministry of Power).
• As per the latest data available, after the disinvestment made by the government in the stakes of NTPC limited (in 2004, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016, & 2017), the Government of India now holds 54.74% equity stakes of it.
• NTPC currently holds a total of 55 power stations in India which includes 24 coal power stations, 2 Hydropower stations, 11 Solar project power stations, 1 Wind power station and 7 combined liquid fuel & cycle gas power stations. Other than this, this corporation is also having joint ventures of 9 coal power stations and one gas power station with its subsidiaries.
• In May 2010, NTPC limited became one of the four companies that were conferred with Maharatna status awarded by the Union government of India.
• The total assets under the NTPC limited is ?398,966 crores (US$56 billion) as per the latest data of 2021.
• The total equity of NTPC limited is ?116,041 crores (US$16 billion) as per the latest data of 2021.
• As per the data of 2021, the total operating income of NTPC limited is ?25,930 crores (US$3.6 billion), total net income is ?14,285 crores (US$2.0 billion), and revenue generated by this corporation is ?115,546 crore (US$16 billion).

NTPC limited: History

The history of NTPC limited is very long and vast, and we cannot study it in a single-phase manner as many changes have been seen in past decades. Therefore, we are going to study the history of NTPC limited in various phases in this section.We will discuss the history of NTPC limited in the following three parts in this section:

1. Early beginning (1975 to 1994)
2. New Changes (1995 to 2004)
3. Current Scenario (2005 to Present)

We will discuss each phase included in the history of NTPC limited and see what major changes have come in each of the three phases, as we have mentioned above.

Phase 1: Early beginning of NTPC limited (from 1975 to 1994):

NTPC limited was founded as National Thermal Power Corporation Private Limited on November 7th of 1975, and it became operational in 1976 by starting work on its first thermal power project at Shakti Nagar of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in the year 1976. The first thermal power project of NTPC limited was named National Thermal Power Corporation Private Limited Singrauli. Also, in the year 1976, the name of NTPC limited was changed from "National Thermal Power Corporation Private Limited" to National Thermal Power Corporation Limited. In the Fiscal Year (FY) 1982-83, when NTPC limited began its commercial operations of selling power (exact in the year 1983), it earned a total profit of INR 4.5 crores.

Following more changes have been seen in the early beginning phase of the NTPC limited:

• At the end of the year 1985, NTPC limited was able to achieve the 2000 MW power generation capacity in India.
• By the year 1986, NTPC limited was able to complete its synchronisation at Singrauli thermal power plant of its first 500 MW unit.
• Moving ahead, two years later, in 1988, NTPC limited commissioned two units of thermal power plant (one each in Ramagundam and Rihand) of 500 MW capacity.
• NTPC limited acquired the major equity stakes in the Feroze Gandhi Unchahar Thermal Power Station in the year 1992. The subsidiary body of NTPC limited, i.e.,Feroze Gandhi Unchahar Thermal Power Station, was from Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam of Uttar Pradesh.
• NTPC limited was able to install more units in the year 1994, by which its capacity crossed 15,000 MW in total.

These were the major changes that have been seen in the NTPC limited corporation in its early beginning phase from 1975 to 1994.

Phase 2: New Changes in NTPC limited (from 1995 to 2004)

At the beginning of the year 1995, NTPC limited took over the majority equity stake in Talcher Thermal Power Station, which was from the Orissa state electricity board. NTPC limited was conferred with the status of "Navratna" by the government of India in the year 1997, and also in the same year, it was able to achieve the milestone of generating a total of 100 billion electricity in a single calendar year. In the year 1998, NTPC limited commissioned its first Naptha-based power plant having a total generating capacity of 350 MW at the Kayamkulam.

The power plant of NTPC limited located at Dadri was certified with ISO-14001 in the year 1999, and the same power plant of NTPC limited had the highest PLF (Plant load factor) in India.

Other than the overview as mentioned above of history phase 2 of NTPC limited, the following more changes have been seen in the same phase history:

• NTPC limited had started construction of its first hydroelectric power plant project in the year 2000 at Himachal Pradesh, and this hydroelectric power plant project has a total capacity of 800 MW.
• NTPC limited incorporated the following three subsidiaries: "NTPC Hydro Limited", "NTPC Electric Supply Company Limited", and "NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited" in the year 2002.
• Listing of NTPC limited: In the year 2004 (exact to be 5th November of 2002), NTPC limited got listed on NSE and BSE. NTPC limited closed its first day of listing with a per-share price of INR 75.55 against it issued the price of Rs 62 per share. NTPC limited became the 3rd largest company of India on its very first day of listing (in terms of market capitalisation).

Phase 3: Current Scenario in the NTPC (from 2005 to Present)

In this part, we are going to look at the third phase of the history of NTPC, where we will look from 2005 to the present and see what changes have come in the corporation since then.

It was the October of the year 2005 when the name of the company was changed from National Thermal Power Corporation Limited to NTPC limited, and since then, it is officially known as NTPC limited only. Now, the one question that will surely come to our mind at this point is that why the name of the corporation was changed all of a sudden. The primary or main reason behind changing the name of the corporation to NTPC limited is that at the time company's foray into nuclear as well hydropower plant-based power generation along with the backward integration by the coal mining set up by it.

It was the year 2006 when NTPC limited first set up its power plant unit outside the Indian boundaries. NTPC limited made an agreement with the Sri Lankan government in the year 2006 to set up two units of its power plants (each having capacity of 250 MW), each in the Trincomalee city of Sri Lanka.

During the period of 2008 to 2011, NTPC limited entered into various joint ventures with the following organisations:

• Coal India limited
• BHEL
• SAIL
• NHPC
• NPCIL
• NDMC and,
• Bharat forge

NTPC limited entered into joint ventures with all the organisations or government corporations to expand its business of power plants and power generation to another level.

Other than the overview of history phase 3 of NTPC limited as we have mentioned above, the following more changes have been seen in the same phase history:

• The NTPC limited joined forces to do business with various other state enterprises like Steel Authority of India, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, National Minerals Development Corporation, and Coal India. This was done by NTPC limited in order to generate and invest more in the coal mining operations through International Coal Ventures Private Limited (ICVL), which was a joint venture in the year 2009.
• ICVL had acquired a total of 65% equity share stakes of Benga coal mile (This mile is situated in Mozambique), which is belongs to the Rio Tinto Group of power plants and power generation.

These were the present current scenario major changes that we have been seen in the NTPC limited corporation in the current phase from 2005 to the present.

Subsidiaries of NTPC limited and their purposes

NTPC limited introduced its three subsidiaries for some specific reasons, which we are going to specify in this part of the history section only. Following we are the subsidiary name of NTPC limited with the purpose of introducing it:

Operations: NTPC limited

In this section, we are going to discuss the headquarters of NTPC limited as well the operation locations. As we have read earlier in the introduction part that NTPC limited is only operating in India but from other countries too, and these other countries are Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. If we go by the figures in the data, then we will figure out that NTPC limited operates from 70 different locations inside India as well as from two locations in Bangladesh and one location in Sri Lanka.

Headquarters of NTPC limited: As we have discussed the total operating locations of NTPC limited, we will now know about NTPC limited's headquarters (all the headquarters of NTPC limited is situated in India only). We will here provide you with a list of all the eight regional headquarters of NTPC limited with the state name in which the regional headquarters is situated.

Following is the list of all the regional headquarters of NTPC limited situated in India:

These are the eight operational headquarters of NTPC limited in India, and as we can see in the table that one of the headquarter is established by NTPC limited in New Delhi, India is only for hydropower plants of it. And, all the matter and disputes related to any hydropower plant of the company is solver here only by the respective authorities of NTPC limited. Other than this, we can also observe from the table that the headquarters of the NTPC limited is distributed according to the zonal parts of India, i.e., Eastern, Southern, Western and Northern.

Generation of power and schedule dispatching: Generation of power from all the power stations as well as scheduling and dispatching of all the power generating stations which are owned by National Thermal Power Corporation Limited is done by respective regional load dispatch scheduling centres. These respective regional load scheduling and dispatch centres are apex bodies that have to ensure integrated operations of the power generation and grid system in all the respective regions. All these respective regional load scheduling and dispatch centres come under POSOCO (Power System Operation Corporation Limited).

Future goals of NTPC limited

We have discussed the history of NTPC limited in the previous section of this article. In this section, we will be talking about the present scenario and future goals of NTPC limited and how it is planning to move forward and about its development in the upcoming years.

NTPC limited is a big and growing company, and so its future plans are. NTPC limited have developed a long-term plan to grow more and become a power generation company with a total capacity of 128000 MW by the year 2032. This public sector company is also aiming or have a long-term plan to reduce its dependency on fossil fuel capacity mix power generation to 56% by the year 2032. It is already on an expansion spree for big developments to meet the power requirements of the country. NTPC Limited has already achieved the target of adding 14,058 MW power generation capacity power plants from Fiscal year 13 to Fiscal year 17 (12th 5-year plan). In this target, it has achieved the milestone of adding:

• 4170 MW power generation capacity in the Fiscal year 2013 (from 2012 to 2013),
• 1835 MW power generation capacity in the fiscal year 2014 (from 2013 to 2014),
• 1290 MW power generation capacity in the fiscal year 2015 (from 2014 to 2015),
• 1150 MW power generation capacity in the first half of the fiscal year 2016 (from April 2015 to November 2015),
• and also, it completed the rest power generation capacity target in the stipulated time.

NTPC limited have also planned to go global and make its presence in the global market too.

• This public sector company have signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Ceylon Electricity Board (Sri Lanka) and the government of Sri Lanka to set up coal-based thermal power plants having a total power generation capacity of 500 MW (250 MW each × 2) in the island country.
• NTPC Limited has also signed a Memorandum of Understandings with the government of Japan and Kyushu Electric Power Corporation Limited (Japan) for the establishment of an alliance for the exchanges of experts as well as information from the different areas of the business.
• NTPC Limited has also signed a Memorandum of Understandings with the government of Nigeria for the establishment of power plants on a long-term basis against the allocation of LNG for the NTPC power plants present in India.
• Other than this, NTPC limited is also developing a coal-based power plant on a joint-venture basis with the government of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Power development board, having a total power generation capacity of 1320 MW (660 MW each × 2). This development of coal-based power plants company between India and Bangladesh on the basis of joint-venture is also known Bangladesh India Friendship power company which is present in the Rampal of Bangladesh. But, this coal-based power plants are facing tremendous opposition from the people of Bangladesh as they are saying that owing to these power plants have dangerously very close proximity to the Sundarbans Delta.

These are some of the future as well as ongoing plans of the NTPC limited. We have mentioned here all the long-term as well short-term plans and future goals of NTPC limited by benchmarking the year 2015.

Employees in NTPC limited

In this section of the article, we are going to discuss the employees of the company, i.e., total employees present in the company, and we will talk about them on the basis of the data available to us. As per the latest data for the year 2021, NTPC limited approximately 20 thousand employees (a total of 19,918) as of 31st March 2021.

The attrition rate, according to the company's officials, is less than 1% for the fiscal year 2021, i.e., 2020-21, as they are trying to main attrition rate less than 1% every year. According to the data available for the fiscal year 2015 (from 2014 to 2015), the attrition rate for NTPC limited was 1.35% which included employees working for joint ventures power plants as well as subsidiaries power plant and trainee employees. As per the data, the Ratio of Man MW of this public sector company has been fallen over the past few years, i.e., It was 0.77 in the fiscal year 2011, and it had fallen to 0.61 in the fiscal year 2015.

• NTPC Limited has always been creating a great work culture and work environment for its employees and trainee employees as well, and that's why it has been awarded continuously as a great place to work in the PSUs (Public Sector Units) categories.
• NTPC Limited has been awarded the ICSI National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance in the year 2009 for its excellent work environment and culture.
• In the year 2015, NTPC limited has been placed 2nd among the top 250 largest power producer energy traders of the world by Platts for its great work culture.
• On the overall basis of this ranking released by Platts in the year 2015, NTPC limited was placed at 56th rank among the top 250 largest power producer energy traders in the world.

Criticism faced by NTPC limited

In the past, there have many cases when NTPC limited have faced major criticism by the media as well as the local people. These criticisms that were faced by this public sector company has been increased over the year, and we will look at some of the cases where NTPC limited have faced huge criticism (both by the local people of the area as well as by the media) in this section of the article.

Following were some of the highlighted instances where NTPC limited have faced huge criticism in the past:

Acquisition of Land in Tribal Areas: NTPC limited (as well as other PSUs in India) have been allotted land in the tribal and rural area across the country by the central government as well as various state government to set up power generation plants and its related or required infrastructure in that allocated area. Many times the land which is allocated by the state or central government to this public sector company and other PSUs as well have been allotted through the various Land acquisition acts passed by the governments (Central as well as state government). When the land acquisition act for the land allocated is enacted by the government, then it also places a liability on the respective government and PSUs as well to take proper actions for a well-settled rehabilitation of the dispatched residents of that rural or tribal area. If the liability of proper rehabilitation of dispatched residents of the allocated area is not fulfilled, then the Government, as well as the PSUs to which land is allocated, are criticized by the people as well as media. Also, in many tribal or rural areas, local residents have opposed the forcible acquisition of their land where the land acquisition act has been passed or even proposed through the laws by the respective government, as they were not sure or satisfied with the rehabilitation planned for them by the government.

Controversies with the projects of NTPC limited: There are many projects of NTPC limited where controversies have been seen between this public sector company and the government due to many reasons, and because of this, it has faced a lot of criticism in the past. Following are the projects of NTPC limited in which controversies have been clearly seen between this public sector company and the government:

• Rupasiyabagar Khasiabara Hydropower plant in Pithoragarh of Uttarakhand (near to the border of China) having a proposed capacity of 261 MW power generation is yet to be given investment approval by the government.
• Loharinag Pala Hydro Power Project: The Loharinag Pala Hydro Power Project by the NTPC Limited, which had a total proposed power generation capacity of 600 MW units (150 MW each unit × 4 units total), is located on the Bhagirathi River, which is a tributary river to Ganga present in the Uttarkashi district of the Uttarakhand. It is the first project downstream, i.e., from the origin of Ganga at the Gangotri river by the company, and it even reached the advanced stage of establishment. During the advanced stage of setting up of Loharinag Pala Hydro Power Project, it was discontinued by the government of India, and it caused huge criticism to NTPC limited.
• The Badarpur thermal power plant of NTPC limited has been permanently closed by the public sector company on the orders of the Delhi high court and Delhi government. The order was passed to close the Badarpur thermal power plant as it was causing too much pollution in the city as well as in the Delhi NCR area, and because of this, NTPC limited had faced a lot of criticism from many NGOs, environmentalists, and from many other people too. The total power generation capacity of the Badarpur thermal power plant was 750 MW, and it became fully closed or retired on 15th October of 2018.

Because of all the examples mentioned above and many other cases, we can clearly see why NTPC limited has been criticized so much in the past and why many people raised voices against it and its plans on many occasions. So, here we have seen the occasions as well as the reasons that why NTPC limited have been criticised so many times in the past.

Listing and equity shareholdings of NTPC limited:

NTPC limited had first listed on BSE and NSE in the year 2004, and currently, the equity shares of this public sector company are listed on the National Stock Exchange of India, where it is a constituent of the S&P CNX Nifty and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) where it is a constituent of the BSE SENSEX Index.

• In the year 2015 (September 2015), the government of India was holding 74.96% equity shares in NTPC limited, whereas more than 680,000 individual shareholders were holding approximately 1.92% share in this public sector company.
• At that time, LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) of India was the largest non-promoter shareholder of NTPC Limited, which was holding a total of 10.03% of its total shareholdings.
• Later in the year 2017 (August 2017), the government of India further divested 5% of its shareholdings in the NTPC limited through OFS, which is a Stock Exchange Mechanism.
• After divested its 5% stakes in the company, the government of India reduced its shareholdings in the company by 64.96% shareholdings (which is equal to 5,76,83,41,760 shares) out of the total shares, i.e., 8,24,54,64,400 shares.
• The rest shares of the company (which is not owned by the government of India) is now held by the Mutual funds, common public, banks and FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors).

Below we are providing you with a table in which we have listed who is holding how many equity shares in the NTPC limited. Look at the following table to understand the equity shares distribution in the NTPC limited:

By looking at the above table, we can clearly understand the distribution of equity shares of NTPC limited among different Shareholders, and we can conclude that different financial institutions are the second-highest shareholders of the company and FIIs are the third-highest shareholders of the company after the government of India. Other than this, we can also conclude that only 2% approximately of the equity shares of NTPC limited are held by the common people.

Conclusion

In this article, we have read about NTPC Limited, which is a public sector company and previously known as National Thermal Power Corporation Limited of India. We had a look at the detailed history of NTPC limited in a phased manner and how it is developed so much over the years. Then, we looked at the future goals of the company and operations of the company in different parts of India as well as in other countries too. Then, we looked at the subsidiaries of the NTPC limited and how much stake NTPC limited holding in them. After that, we looked at the instances where criticism faced by the company in the past and what were the reasons behind it. In last, we have concluded the article with understanding the distribution and listing of shareholdings of NTPC limited over the years and how it is distributed among different shareholders.