Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Tata Power Q4 FY 2022 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. We have with us today on the call Dr. Praveer Sinha, CEO and MD, Tata Power, and Mr. Sanjeev Churiwala, CFO, Tata Power. I now hand the conference over to Dr. Praveer Sinha. Thank you and over to you, doctor.
Thank you, Aman. Good evening to everyone, and thanks for joining the call. I hope all of you are doing fine and taking care of yourselves. I'm joined today in the call by my colleagues Sanjeev Churiwala, CFO, Anand Agarwal, Financial Controller, Mr. Kasturi and Mr. Rahul Shah from the Investor Relations, and some other colleagues from the finance department. In the last quarter of FY 2022, we have seen unprecedented volatility in the commodity cycles, which has put huge amount of pressure on the power situation in India because of the higher power demand, as also the Indian economy has moved to the next level of utilization, leading to much higher power consumption. Tata Power, as a responsible stakeholder, has strived to provide best services across its operation to help the country to meet its power demand.
This quarter has been very eventful in many ways for Tata Power as we have progressed very well on many of these strategic initiatives. I will share with you a brief summary of the result and cover some of the key strategic initiatives, and thereafter, take questions from you. Tata Power has delivered a strong fourth quarter as both the underlying EBITDA and the profits have seen significant growth compared to last year. Operations across the board have been very strong with addition of Odisha DISCOMs and higher profit in the renewable business. This is the 10th consecutive quarter in which we have been able to show a profit growth.
The company has moved closer to strengthening the fundamentals of our Mundra and coal business as we completed the merger of CGPL into Tata Power and also secured the extension of the mining lease in KPC for 10 years with a proviso to extend by another 10 years. We are also in very advanced stages of finalizing the supplementary PPA with Gujarat, and the same will become the template for other DISCOMs too. As per that, we have already started supplying power to Gujarat from first January 2022. At present, we supply 1,805 MW to Gujarat and 760 MW to Maharashtra. This approved compensatory framework would then become the basis on which we will finalize with the other three states also.
As we had announced last month, Tata Power has signed the binding agreement with a consortium of BlackRock and Mubadala to raise INR 4,000 crore for our renewable platform, which will create the most comprehensive renewable platform with the utility scale businesses like large solar capacities, EPC and manufacturing, customer centric businesses like rooftop solar pumps and EV charging business. The funds raised will be used exclusively for the growth of green company and will allow us to scale up this platform. All our assets have continued to operate at benchmark levels and the performance across our generation, distribution, transmission and renewable businesses has been very robust in the last quarter.
The coal mine operations were however impacted in the last quarter due to certain local issues which was relating to the supply of coal to the local plants in Indonesia, as also was impacted because of heavy rains in Indonesia during the period January to March. Our two EPC businesses, Tata Projects and Tata Power Solar, also saw a lot of pressure from high commodity prices. As a result, the profitability of existing projects were hit and the appropriate provisions have been made in this quarter, especially for Tata Projects. Despite these commodity pressures and lower profits in coal company, we delivered 16% year-on-year growth in revenue this quarter from INR 10,379 crores in Q4 FY 2021 to INR 12,085 crores.
Similarly, the reported EBITDA rose by more than 35% to INR 253 crores and PAT before exceptional items saw a huge growth of 76% from INR 440 crores to INR 775 crores. Our renewable business delivered very strong execution during the last quarter as Tata Power Solar commissioned 555 MW of AC solar capacity for its customers, which includes 444 MW of AC solar capacity for our own utility scale projects. The EPC business continues its number one position, securing a single largest contract of 1 GW worth INR 5,500 crores pursuant to the LOA, which has been issued by SJVN under the CPSU scheme. This is one of the largest single project awarded to TPSSL, reinforcing TPSSL's strong execution capabilities.
With this win, the company has 1.5 GW of own project and 3 GW of total large-scale EPC contracts to execute, which will be targeted for completion in next 12 to 18 months. The rooftop solar business saw another successful quarter of project execution, reaching a revenue of INR 687 crore, which is almost 80% higher than Q3. We also saw 172 MW of new orders won in this quarter for rooftop projects, helping the order book to grow to a level of INR 516 crore. Our marketing outreach and setting up of the centralized and dedicated loan processing branch through SBI's Surya Shakti Cell is providing push to retail offtake of rooftop, and we are excited with the opportunities for Tata Power in this field.
The solar pump business also has seen a good offtake as the orders pursuant to the EESL empanelment has now started converting with almost INR 250 crores of orders booked in Q4. With strong execution, revenue increased to INR 243 crores last quarter, compared to only INR 86 crores in Q3. With the launch of Tata Power branded solar pumps and our existing strong presence in the states, we expect that our pump business is well geared to capitalize on the EESL tender. We have also started opening up for direct retail segment with more than 150 pump orders already received in this quarter. Coming to our integrated Mundra and coal portfolio, as I mentioned earlier, we saw two significant events getting completed. The first one was the merger of CGPL into Tata Power, and the second is the extension of KPC's mining lease.
The merger of CGPL into Tata Power helps us to streamline the operation and have a more efficient utilization of capital across the various businesses in the standalone entity besides other financial synergies. As we had indicated earlier, the extension of the mining license has been now given for 10 years, which is further extendable as per the regulations. There has been some tweaks to the royalty and corporate tax rates, and a profit sharing has been included. However, on a combined basis, we see profits from coal mines to remain at similar levels. It is also worthwhile to touch upon the current quarter's coal mine results. As you are aware, Indonesia had imposed an export ban in January to replenish their depleting stock prior to the monsoon.
As a result of which, coal mines sold their production in India at a capped price of $70 per ton. However, this local sales will be counted towards the DMO obligations for the full year, and February and March operations were also hit by rains, which are common during this time of the year in Indonesia. As a result of these two events, we have seen reduced profits from coal mines, but we expect that this will be recovered in the subsequent quarters as the coal prices continue to remain at very elevated levels. With continued high coal prices, we operated only one unit for most of the last quarter in Mundra. However, subsequent to the discussions with GUVNL on the supplementary PPA to implement the compensatory tariff, the same has progressed very well.
Government of India has also come out with many regulations which is supporting the operations of imported coal-based plants on a cost-plus basis. GUVNL has requested us to continue supply of power under this arrangement since January 1st, 2022. As a result, we have accounted for supply of power to GUVNL under this existing this supplementary arrangement. We expect to conclude the negotiations shortly post which similar framework will be used with other procurer states. The focused operations across the four Odisha DISCOMs is leading to continuous improvements as various technical, commercial, and customer-related initiatives have helped the DISCOMs to reduce the technical losses. We had experienced receivables going up in early part of FY 2022 due to COVID second wave and then this third wave.
However, in the last two quarters, we have been able to collect a significant portion of the past dues in all the four DISCOMs. In addition, these DISCOMs, through their efforts, have been able to recover the past payment of nearly INR 470 crore of arrear before the takeover in FY 2022. As a result of various such initiatives, which has given us the incentives also, we have registered a profit of INR 109 crore in Q4 from all these four DISCOMs put together. On a full year basis, we have delivered 28% growth in our consolidated revenue from INR 33,239 crore last year to INR 42,576 crore in FY 2022. PAT before exceptional items increased by 61% from INR 1,424 crore to INR 2,298 crore in FY 2022.
Moving to the balance sheets, we have been able to maintain the net debt similar to the Q3 levels at around INR 39,700 crores, while undertaking CapEx of almost INR 2,700 crores during this quarter. Healthy growth in underlying EBITDA from businesses continues to help us to improve our debt to underlying EBITDA from 4.12 in Q3 FY 2022 to three point nine two this quarter. Our net debt to equity stands at a healthy 1.53 compared to 1.58 in the previous quarter. Improvements in domestic as well as international credit ratings will further assist us in optimizing our interest costs. As mentioned earlier, we expect to receive the first tranche of INR 2,000 crores through our renewable business platform in June.
Certain regulatory approvals and transfer of businesses are under process before conclusion of the first tranche in future. Thereafter, the second tranche of INR 2,000 crore will be infused in six months' time through securities which will be converted into equity post the financial results of FY 2023. The funds raised through this transaction will help us to further our RE growth ambitions and scale up our green platform. Our growth pursuit in transmission business is also starting to materialize with the second stressed project now won through the Resurgent platform. Resurgent has been awarded the LOI for acquisition of 100% stake in South East U.P. Power Transmission Company Limited under the IBC project. This project has approximately 1,500 km of transmission line and five 400 KV substations.
We also completed the acquisition of 100% of stake in NRSS XXXVI transmission line on 4 April through the Resurgent platform. Both these projects taken together have a combined EV of about INR 6,500 crores and an annual revenue of around INR 900 crores. Our EV charges business also continues to expand with more than 2,000 public charging and 200 bus charging points installed till March end. Our network is now spread across more than 350 cities, making us one of the most widely present EV charging company. We have also recently entered into MOUs with NAREDCO and Rustomjee Group, which will help us to expand our charging infrastructure in commercial and residential properties across Mumbai and in other parts of the country too, along with opportunities to enhance it along the highways and also within the cities.
We continue to work on expanding our partnership, which will help us with access to best of the real estate spaces and customers. The company has already concluded many of the strategic initiatives over the last two years. With this, the focus now shifts to complete and execute, and we expect your support in this journey towards Tata Power 2.0. As we have always stressed, our transformation will be founded on the pillars of strong balance sheets and healthy return metrics. With this, I hand over the call back to Aman for the question and answer session.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is on the line of Swarnim Maheshwari from Edelweiss. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Good evening, and thanks for the opportunity. Couple of questions. First, you know, you have been in discussions with GUVNL for Mundra tariff hike and everything. Like just today, Section 11 was invoked, where it has been ordered to restart the import to its full capacity. I mean, how do we understand this? You know, what are the implications for this order for us?
See, Swarnim, we are already operating four units, and we are supplying to Gujarat 1,805 MW and to Maharashtra 760. Whether the Section 11 order comes or not, we have been supplying to them. The order of government says that whatever is the coal cost pass-through, you have to be given with certain returns, or you can mutually negotiate and finalize. We are at this present stage mutually negotiating with them and finalizing an arrangement which is acceptable to both the parties, and we hope to conclude this in next maybe two weeks' time.
Sir, in the Q4 results, we were operating at 25% PLF at Mundra. Just wanted to understand, have we actually increased this PLF in Q1 FY 2023?
Yeah, absolutely. I mentioned to you that we were initially operating three units from first of April, and some time back we started the fourth unit. Right now four units are there, so we will definitely be having much higher PLF going forward.
All right. Sir, my second question is on TPSL. I think on the volatility side, like you had mentioned, but just looking at, we have done one of the highest ever revenues in the quarter, but if you just look at, you know, from the margins perspective, it's like sub three odd percentage. You know, some sort of guidance. I mean, when this is likely to stabilize, not even talking, when do we expect, you know, 7% to 8% margins, but some sort of semblance on the margin side will be really helpful.
As we had shared earlier that last year was an unprecedented year. One was, of course, the COVID, and the second is the war between Ukraine and Russia, and that has a huge impact on the commodity prices. This was not something which was anticipated. Similarly, the Chinese prices of cell and modules have gone up tremendously in last one year. To take care of that, we have now started getting contract manufacturing done in India. We will make the cell from China, which has a lower customs duty compared to the modules, get them made over here into modules, and we will be using. To that extent, our margins will improve a lot because of this arrangement.
Today we are very well positioned to take care of our future margins because whatever cost increases which have taken place, those have now been incorporated in our new bids. All our new bids which we have recently won or which we are executing will have much better margins because for whatever were the anticipated losses in the existing projects also we have considered it in the last quarter. Going forward, I do expect that there will be much better margin in all our EPC projects that we do through Tata Power Solar.
All right, sir. Got it. Thank you so much. I'll get back in the queue, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Atul Tiwari from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thanks a lot for the opportunity. Just trying to understand the Mundra, supplementary PPA in a bit of detail. In fourth quarter the fuel cost and the recovery was about INR 1. Should we assume that once all the PPAs, supplementary PPAs are signed, et cetera, we should look at, like, INR 1 kind of under recovery or is it likely to reduce? How? If you can throw some light on this.
Yeah. See, as I mentioned to you, we are still finalizing. We had only done a provisional booking in as far as the Mundra losses were there in terms of under recovery in the last quarter. Once we are able to finalize it and get clarity on it, they will be much better and much lower under recovery that we expect. As you are aware that this has been under discussion and now Government of India also has come that there should be a pass-through and there should not be too much of under recovery. We hope that going forward we'll be in a much better condition.
Okay. Sir, what is the tenure of the supplementary PPAs? I mean, how long we are talking about? Is it for rest of the life of the plant or does it terminate somewhere in the middle?
We already have a PPA. This is an interim arrangement that is being made because of the high cost of coal. We will have to wait and see that, till what time the cost of coal remains high. Till such time the cost of coal remains high and does not come to the pre-COVID level, this arrangement will continue.
Okay, sir. Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mohit Kumar from DAM Capital Advisors. Please go ahead.
Sir, a couple of clarification. The coal profit has been muted in this quarter. Is the profit been booked under new extension terms? Are the operations normalized in the month of April?
The profit is muted not because of the change in the taxes and duties because they are virtually taking care of each other. Just to give you an idea, the corporate tax over there, which was 45%, has reduced to 22% or 24%. But the royalty, which was something like 13.5, has gone up to 27%. I think what you need to look at it, and there is a slide on that we have shared, S lide 28, which provides that. The net impact is not going to be very large. The very reason that it got impacted was during the period of January to March, we could not sell coal outside because of the restriction where exports were banned.
Whatever was sold locally was sold at a local price of $78.
$78.
$78.
$78.
$70, while the market was much higher at that time. Thirdly, during that period, in most of the months we were mining less than four million tons. In fact, it was around 3.4 to 3.5, where normally we used to mine five million tons because of very heavy rains and flooding of the coal mines. Now that the monsoon is over, we expect that in future months, there will be a catch-up.
Secondly, sir, what is the status of 4 GW solar cell and module manufacturing capacity? Is it on hold and till the new PLI manufacturing, you know, scheme gets announced and the bidding happens? Is that the right?
No. It is not at all on hold. The work is going on. We are in the process of now placing the orders for the main equipment. The engineering work has been carried out. Site-related work will start sometime in June. We expect that by next year, May, June, in 12 months, we will be able to complete the module line, and by October we will complete the cell line. It's very much on track. It will be completed as was planned and envisaged in our proposals.
Have you heard anything on the PLI scheme, sir? Because I guess this,
Yeah, PLI scheme is a parallel activity which is going on. Notwithstanding that, we are still going ahead with the project.
The last one is supplementary PPA for Mundra. Is there any chance that there could be a long-term supplementary PPA which will get signed according to the High Powered Committee report?
That is one of the options. Lot of options are being discussed. Once it gets finalized, we'll get a much better clarity as to what sort of arrangement ultimately is desired.
Understood, sir. Thanks and all the best, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Puneet from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you, and it's very heartening to see that finally there's progress on Mundra side, once again. My first question is actually on Indonesia. You know, on a normalized basis, what kind of gap should we see from the HBA price to your FOB price?
There is no gap. HBA price is HBA price. That is the price at which you buy coal. There is no gap between that.
Indonesia part, right? For example, you talk about $183.5 as HBA price, but the revenue derived is $98, which is to some extent you said is impacted by domestic obligation as well. If that were not to be the case, what kind of FOB revenue on a per ton basis can you realize?
For 25% it will be $70. For the balance it will be GCV adjusted.
See, what happens is, all these coal companies have a requirement to supply 25% of their production to the local power company over there, PLN.
Yeah.
The balance 75% they sell at HBA. In some cases, they sell at HBA plus, especially very high CV coals, they sell at HBA plus. Nothing can be sold lower than HBA. This is linked to the GCV. HBA is linked to a GCV of 6,322. Depending upon the quality of coal, the GCV, the HBA or the sale price gets indexed to that on pro rata basis.
Understood. The Q4 numbers reflect the new royalty, taxation, norms, et cetera, right?
Yeah.
Okay. The second question is, you know, on the renewable business. Now that, you know, there is a decent amount of equity infusion, how are you looking at growth in the renewable business? Are you likely to bid more aggressively, take larger bets or should we largely think of you as, you know, similarly prudent way, the way you've been operating in the past?
Can you come again?
No. I'm saying post the equity infusion, you will have significant amount of equity capital which can be deployed for, you know, renewable projects. Would you look to take larger bets on the renewable side or will the typical bid or renewable development capacity that you intend to add every year would be similar to what you've done in the past?
We'll do much bigger. This year we have plans to do nearly 3 GW. We have shared with you earlier that by 2027 we will become a 20 GW company from our present five. As of yesterday only, we won the bid of 600 MW. This is, we had never won a bid of such large capacity.
Yeah.
We definitely are going big in renewables now that we have got the tie-up of funds.
Understood. That's very good. Lastly, on the Odisha DISCOM, right? There is a bit of, you know, disconnect between the technical losses, actual AT&C losses and the target AT&C losses. Is it fair to say that the reported accounts are not capturing the full AT&C losses. They're capturing only the technical part of it?
They also capture the AT&C losses. What we need to see is that our actual losses what we have got this year is much better than what we had internally as a company decided to do. Our performance has been very good compared to our own internal targets, and it has of course been much better than what it was when we took over. The loss trajectory that we have given to the regulators, it is better than that also. I think we have done quite well in our Odisha DISCOMs in terms of reducing our losses.
Don't foresee any collection issues going forward?
No, there are collection issues, but, we have been able to do very good collection during the last quarter.
Okay. Okay, that's all from me. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Subhadip Mitra from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Good evening and thank you for taking my questions. Two, three questions from my side. Firstly, on the Indonesian front, you know, there has been some news flow about chances of DMO going up. Is there any visibility on your part, in terms of whether DMO is going to get further restricted?
I'm not aware of any DMO going up, so whatever is the official information is that 25% continues to be there. Of course, they will enforce that. Earlier they were not enforcing it and many of the coal companies were not supplying their obligation. I don't think they have any plans to increase the DMO obligation.
Okay, understood. Secondly, on the UMPP numbers that are reported for the fourth quarter. While the losses have gone up, am I to understand that these have been accounted without any passthrough of coal, unlike what we had seen till thirty-first of December, where there was some passthrough of coal?
Yeah, absolutely. We are still working out an arrangement. This was, that arrangement has not been accounted for in this.
Okay. The entire loss has been booked into your fourth quarter?
Yes.
Understood. With regard to the supplementary PPA that you are negotiating as of now, would this be on the contours of the High Powered Committee recommendation, where we were looking at, you know, fixing the UMPP loss to a particular number, and, you know, have, you know, after adjusting for the share of profits and coal?
That is one of the arrangement that is being discussed, but still not finalized. This is work in progress, and once it gets finalized, we'll share the details.
Lastly, with regard to the Odisha numbers that have been reported, I see in your PPT, you've mentioned that I think close to INR 500 crore of arrears have been collected and booked in FY 2022. Do the profit numbers include the arrears which have been booked in as revenue? And if so, excluding these arrears, what would be the reported PAT numbers, if that's available?
What happens is, it does not get added to the revenue, but it gets added to the PAT. Whatever we collect, which are before, when we took over, we get 10% in the three DISCOMs and in the south we get 20% of whatever we collect as a incentive payment. That has been accounted for.
I would, you know, request the IR team to kind of help us with the breakup of these arrears so that we can understand what the adjusted PAT number would look like.
It's already there.
It's there. I think, I'll tell you that it is on slide-
Thirteen.
13. You can see there.
Okay, perfect. That's it from my side. Thank you so much.
Thank you. A reminder to our participants, please press star and one if you wish to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Murtuza Arsiwala from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir, just a few simple questions from my end. Is it fair that the coal profitability, the drop in gross margins sort of gets fully offset by the reduction in corporate tax? Number one. If you could give us some more contours of the supplementary power agreement which is being signed, you know, what are the terms as well. The third is on the Mundra merger. By when should we see the impact of it on the financials and the taxation, given that it's effective first April? What else needs to be done before we start seeing that in the numbers?
Already done. The Mundra merger benefit has already been accounted for from first of April 2020. It's already there in this year's.
It's there in the current financials. The current financials reported have the impact of the merger and the resultant tax reduction?
Absolutely right. Secondly, on the coal company, as I mentioned to you, the lower profit in that in the last quarter is primarily because of the export ban, local DMO obligation, where you have to sell at $70. The third is because of heavy rain, lower production and lower sale of. Considering that, now they will be able to produce at full capacity and catch-up plan, and also the higher prices of coal in future quarters, you will definitely see a much better result from that. As far as the Mundra thing is concerned, there are a lot of things which are being discussed in terms of how to adequately compensate the company.
Now, whether it is the HPC formula or the new methodology where it will be on a cost-plus basis. All those are being discussed. The objective is how to make this plant sustainable in the long run.
For now, the SPPA that is being signed, does it come open-ended in the sense of up to when it's effective, saying that when till such time?
It will be effective first January from the time that we have been supplying them power.
Yeah. In terms of the end date, does it come with a finite life or it?
Those are being discussed and seeing that how this can be done so that it becomes a long term. Also considering that there is acute shortage of power in the country, and this is not going to go away very quickly, how this can be done so that it guarantees a certain amount of supply to Gujarat and the other beneficiary states.
Sure. Thank you. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. Anyone who wish to ask a question at this time, they may please press star and one. The next question is on the line of Anupam Goswami from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. My first question on the SPPA. You mentioned about the SPPA being valid until the fuel cost remaining high. At what threshold price of fuel cost are we thinking that that level of high will justify? My second question is on the PLI benefit of the module and 4 GW that we are extending. What is the PLI benefit in that?
PLI benefit will depend on what is the new policy of PLI comes. The earlier one we had applied and there was a wait list, but I think ministry is now working on a new arrangement. We need to see that and then we'll be able to get an idea as to what sort of benefit will come. Secondly, the arrangement that will come with Mundra is that how it can be a long-term arrangement, and especially considering that the shortage of power will be there in the subsequent years also. How to ensure that it ring fences the supply to the beneficiary states. Also, the prices, which was pre-COVID, was something like $65 and all.
They are definitely looking that only if it comes to that level, they can go for the earlier arrangement. Till such time that does not come, the cost pass-through arrangement has to be worked out.
As far as I remember, sir, even at 65, we were making some losses in Mundra.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
The arrangement at that time and, has always been that, all the stakeholders have to contribute. If you remember at that time, there was an arrangement where the lenders were also there, apart from the developer and procurer, and everyone was supposed to take some sort of contribution to come to an amicable arrangement. I think, something similar to that has to be worked out.
Okay. Okay, sir. Sir, is there any other states also, talks are going on?
No. We are trying to sort out first with Mundra before we go to the other states.
Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you. I'll join back. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Deepika Mundra from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. Sir, I just wanted to understand a bit on the distribution privatization opportunity. Are you seeing, after this, you know, union territory bids that happened, any significant progress with some of the states? In that respect, you know, your target of expanding that portfolio, where are you at in terms of your five-year target?
There are two aspects of this. One is the change in the Electricity Act, which was talking about de-licensing. That has not happened, and we are expecting that maybe in the monsoon session of Parliament that might get passed. That will then give an opportunity for the state DISCOMs and the state governments to de-license it and get multiple players. The other is the typical PPP arrangement or the franchisee arrangement. I expect that some of the other states and some of the bigger states which have recently completed their elections, they may possibly go for something like this, as we have seen what happened in Odisha.
We are very confident that there will be large opportunities which will be coming, considering that many of the DISCOMs are in financial stress and for them to sustain operation and supply quality power, they will require to bring private investment.
Understood. While all these supplementary PPAs, etc., are under negotiation, what is your confidence level on being able to maintain the receivables from DISCOMs at fairly elevated cost of power being supplied?
You know that there is huge shortage of power, and for them it's very important that they pay for the power that we will supply so that we can continue supply to them. Our confidence level is 100% on this. They will pay us.
Understood, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is on the line for Rajesh Majumdar from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Thanks for taking my call. I had a general question. I was just noticing on your PLF in renewables, it's come down a tad from Q4 last year from 27 to 24, whereas we were under the impression that PLF in renewables actually is going up in solar. What is the kind of PLF that we are foreseeing in renewables in the near future?
See, you know renewable projects are cyclic. Like, from June to October, you have very good wind months, and the winter and the early part of summer.
No, I was talking about solar only. The solar part.
Yeah. Similarly, solar also, it's cyclical. The starting from March till June you have very good solar and then during some of the winter months, you don't have that good solar intensity. I think one needs to look at it from the perspective of how what sort of solar intensity are there. Also, what happens is that there has been freak rains during certain periods of the year, and we have seen that happening also in last quarter. These are the weather pattern changes which are happening, which we had not anticipated. Because of that, there is impact. Otherwise if you see, our solar projects, their availability has improved a lot, from our 21 locations.
I think 17 locations are at 100% availability, and the balance of four are at 99.9 level availability. The availability of the plants are there. It's unfortunate that the solar intensity during those periods have been less.
Right, sir.
In fact, solar availability is virtually 100% now in most of the cases.
Right, sir. My second question is, basically, again, a general question. With the kind of peak load shortages we are already seeing and with the kind of vagaries in solar power as you correctly highlighted in terms of the seasonal patterns, etc., do we foresee a rethink on coal-based assets? We have already seen linkage of imported coal-based plants as an emergency measure. Do we see a rethink on the government's part in terms of coal-based assets? Will the company do a rethink on this to some extent?
No. We have no plans to go back to coal. We strongly believe that going forward, the renewable investment will only increase. There are very good solutions which are available, which can supply renewable power, not only during the periods they are producing, but also in the periods that they are not producing through a combination of storage solutions and doing a hybrid with hydro and other. We strongly believe that renewable is the way forward to meet the future power requirements.
You foresee battery storage to basically take care of these kind of discrepancies in the near future? Or is it going to be faster than what we are anticipating in terms of. Because we don't see the kind of additions in renewables last year to the extent that the government predicted. Like, we were looking at 30, 35 gigs per annum, but we only got about 15. If that is the rate going forward, we're gonna have a serious situation five years down the line.
Yeah. The speed and the pace of renewables, which has to come, has to increase so that we are able to meet the future requirements of power.
You're expecting a jump in the additions basically?
Yes, absolutely.
Oh. Okay. Thanks. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Apurva Bahadur from Investec. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, wanted some clarity on these new mining regulations in Indonesia, especially pertaining to royalty. I am seeing in this quarter, we have almost a 28% rate of royalty, despite having a larger share of DMO sales. Is it that the rate of royalty has increased for DMO sales as well?
Yeah. The rate of royalty has increased for all types of. For DMO it has, I think, become 20% and for export it is 24%.
Graded.
It's graded on the quality of coal. The corporate tax, which was 45%, has been now brought down to-
Twenty-two.
22%. Yeah. That's the difference that has come. You can see the Slide 7 that we have shared with you.
Okay, sir. There is a profit sharing element as well now.
From 45 to 22 is 23% reduction, and then they have increased royalty. It's virtually coming to quits.
Okay. Net-net, it's almost similar.
Yeah.
Sir, on the Mundra supplemental PPA, will it entail some profit sharing from coal business as well?
Those details are being worked out to see that how it becomes fair and equitable for all the stakeholders.
Right. Fair enough, sir. Thank you so much. I'll get back in touch, yeah.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Gopal Nawandhar from SBI Life Insurance. Please go ahead.
Yeah, am I audible?
Yes, you are. Please go ahead.
Yeah, Gopal. Go ahead.
Thanks a lot. Sir, can you just help us understand on what basis we have done accounting for Mundra? We have written, you know, INR 1 fuel cost under recovery. In the comment section we have written, you know, fixed cost under recovery and some sharing of profit. Can you just explain what exactly we have accounted for the Mundra?
Can you?
Yeah, please. The one that we have accounted for is on a conservative basis, given that we're still discussing the supplementary agreement with the government. My understanding is that the coal will be a complete pass-through. But, you know, given that there are various elements which are still under discussion, the number that you see on the under-recovery of INR 1 actually could be a much lower amount as and when we progress on the discussions. But we have done accounting on a very conservative basis.
Basically, is it right to assume that, in any given situation or the options which we are discussing, the losses or under-recovery will not be more than what we have accounted for?
Yeah.
Yeah. That's expectation, it should be lower.
Thanks a lot. The second question is on this margins for solar EPC business and, you know, Tata Projects. There has been volatile and, you know, sometimes 10%, sometimes 4% to 5%. What should be the steady-state margin for the next year, given the current order book and the kind of, you know, prices which we have built in and the current commodity prices?
No, I think we have a very steady order book. Very recently we also won 1 gigawatt, you know, bid, which is in Karnataka for the SECI, and it's almost INR 5,500 crores with a good PAT margins. We are kind of very comfortable that next year we should be able to start recovering on the PAT margins. Dr. Praveer Sinha in his opening comment had mentioned that we have seen a very volatile commodity prices and of course the cell and the module prices were very high. To that extent, for some of the projects we have done that true up on the cost, to reflect the true profitability. That's why you see the quarter four, the margins being lower.
We are very confident the next year with you know projects in the pipeline plus the contract manufacturing that we're looking at where we kind of only importing cells and doing the modules here locally should be able to help us get back on track gradually.
7% to 8% margin should be a reasonable estimate for next year?
Oh, sorry, you were talking about the EPC, right? You were talking about EPC only.
EPC and Tata Projects I was talking about. Because Tata Projects also in between quarters.
Tata Projects, we kind of do a one-line accounting.
Yeah, that I understand. Yeah.
Yeah. Basically, Tata Projects also as an EPC had gone through a similar rough patch.
Right. Yeah
This year. To that extent, they've also booked losses, similar to what we have done in our EPC businesses. Hopefully, they're kind of recovering well, and they do have a very healthy pipeline of projects going forward.
Right. Is it fair to assume that, you know, whatever anticipated losses on the current order book would have already been accounted for and, unless otherwise, you know, the prices go up further, there should not be any hiccup in the margins going ahead?
The market is very volatile, but we do plan with what we said in terms of doing contract manufacturing and in terms of having a very healthy project pipeline with good margins. Hopefully, we should be able to sail through.
Sure, sir. Sir, lastly, recently there was an order in AP about you know payment of receivables and all. Can you share any update what is the kind of receivables we have with the AP government on the disputed PPAs, and what is the status? Are we getting the payment on time now?
As per the court order, the payment was to be released in six weeks time. The Odisha DISCOMs have not given, so we have filed a contempt petition against them. We will take it up in the High Court to see that whatever is the order of the High Court gets implemented and we get the money from them.
What will be the receivables, sir, disputed receivables as of 31st March?
I think it's about INR 400 odd crore.
400, okay. Sir, in terms of our debt, what is the breakup between NCDs and term loans?
We can provide you separately, but we do have a proper mix of long-term and short-term in order to deliver a very optimal finance cost. We can share with you separately.
Okay. Sure. No problem. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. We'll take the last question from the line of Subhadip Mitra from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Thank you for giving me an opportunity once again. Just wanted to understand that with ALMM now being in place, do we see any restriction or threats to the existing EPC order book or to the IPP order book, where the modules have now got to be procured locally instead of importing? How do you see that panning out?
We have tied up all our requirements based on the ALMM requirements, so we don't see any challenges. Whatever was required to be done before 31st March, we have done. We had received the material and those have been executed. This is all planned out and we will not have an issue going forward.
Okay. Am I to then understand that any future order inflow will require domestic procurement of modules and?
Yeah.
Those you will have to look at new arrangements?
Yes.
Understood. Thank you.
Yes.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that would be our last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Dr. Sinha for closing comments. Thank you, and over to you.
Thank you very much to all of you for joining for this call. If you have any other queries, our investor relations team will be happy to connect with you and take it forward. Thank you. Thank you very much and take care.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Tata Power, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.