Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Tata Power Q1 FY24 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. I now hand the conference over to Dr. Praveer Sinha, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Power. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Good afternoon to all the analysts who have joined for the call. I have with me my colleagues, Sanjeev Churiwala, CFO; J.V. Patil, Financial Controller; Kasturi, and Rajesh Lachhani from the investor relations, and other members from the finance team. Just to give you a little background on the power sector, globally and in the country, during the first quarter, that is during the period April, May, June this year, there were extreme weather conditions. We had heavy rains right through these months, and we saw that we also had the cyclone in the western part of India impacting Gujarat.
We also had extreme weather conditions in Odisha, where large number of times the called Baisakhi, which is lower level of cyclone, came over there due to extreme heat conditions. Due to all these reasons, the consumption of power during the last quarter only increased by 1.5%, which was expected based on the earlier trends. In fact, the month of February had seen very high temperature. We were expecting a much higher growth in the consumption. We also saw that how globally the coal prices have come down, and to that extent, today, the imported coal is available in large quantity and at a much, much lower price compared to last year.
We also saw that the prices of solar materials, that is solar cells and modules and waivers have come down drastically. We expect that with more capacity addition that will take place in China and some of the other countries in Southeast Asia, there will be an oversupply, and there will be a much restrained prices of cells and modules going forward. As far as Tata Power is concerned, we have done, this is the 15th consecutive quarter in which we have shown a growth in our PAT. This year, for this quarter, our reported PAT is INR 1,141 crore compared to INR 884 crore. If we see the PAT before exceptional items, which is the core business, it is INR 906 crore compared to INR 884 crore.
Our revenue has virtually remained flat, INR 15,000 crore, INR 15,003 crore compared to INR 14,773 crore. There has been a huge improvement in the EBITDA, which has grown to INR 3,005 crore compared to INR 2,107 crore, a 43% growth, showing the robustness of the core business of Tata Power. We have also seen that during this quarter, all our businesses have done exceedingly well, whether it is our existing generation business, all of them have performed much better than the previous year, and the benefit of efficiency and improved cost control, the results are there for us to see.
Similarly, our Mundra plant has operated during this quarter under Section 11, and it continues to do that till September 30th, and if the heat conditions continue, it may get extended. To that extent, our operations at Mundra are cost reflective, and our losses are very restricted over there. Our core business, of course, though it is doing very steady, because of the prices coming down, has reduced profit compared to last year. But the reduction in profit in coal business has been more than made up by our existing operations in our generation business, Mundra, and also in our renewables and in our T&D business, where all our businesses are virtually getting stabilized.
The improvements that have happened over there, because of fundamental business, which has become much more robust, we will see this continuing in future quarters and is a precursor of the improvement that we would see subsequently. In our transmission and distribution business, our recent business has stabilized to a large extent, notwithstanding the fact that we had a very tough three months, wherein we had to do huge amount of restoration activities and field activities, to take care of the weather conditions. My, I think, again, the wheelchair business has stabilized and future quarter performance will be much, much better for us to see. Our EV business also has been doing consistently very well.
Our operations are right across the country. We have nearly 4,400 of public chargers, 50,000 home chargers, and large number of bus chargers that we are putting. We are putting one of the largest number of bus chargers, nearly 1,200, in various cities in the country, under CESL tender that was won by our OEM partner, Tata Motors. If we look at our other area, our balance sheet has improved. Our net debt EBITDA, net our debt equity ratio continues to be at 1.1, and our working capital has improved over a period of time, which has helped us to ensure that we are within all the financial metrics that we have planned for ourselves.
Though the debt during the period increased because of the huge CapEx that we have planned this year, INR 12,000 crore, we would still be within the ceiling of 3.5 for the net debt to underlying EBITDA. We have during the quarter, we have also seen that our ratings have improved. Both ICRA and CARE have upgraded their credit rating from AA stable to AA positive. This is a reflection of the performance of the company in better management of them financially. We have also been awarded in a number of places, whether it is in terms of employer brand or also in areas such as corporate government.
I think it all demonstrates and shows the good performance of the company in all fields. I'm sure that Tata Power, the way it has been steadily improving its performance, will continue to do that in future quarters also, and we maintain a very healthy balance sheet going forward. All our existing operations and the growth areas will continue to perform well in the future also, and I'm sure we will continue to get your support in meeting all the objectives of the company. With this, I will ask Yakshi to open the floor for question and answer.
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone 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. We have our first question from the line of Sumit Kishore from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Good evening, Dr. Sinha. My first question is on the solar EPC business. The solar rooftop revenue is down year-on-year. Solar pump is also down, and the quarterly run rate for the utility-scale solar EPC business that you're booking is significantly low as compared to the INR 170 billion order backlog that you have there. How would you price this performance up relative to the FY25 and FY27 targets that you had given us, you know, on scale-up for solar EPC business?
This is a timing issue. One is on solar pumps. We are, by design, we are going slow because the orders under the KUSUM program have not come. The margins in the KUSUM program in the earlier months were very low, and hence, we have decided that we'll wait for the revised KUSUM program to come before we go full out. As far as our rooftop is concerned, our business has done very well in this quarter. The margins have improved tremendously, and, we expect that the order backlog that we have, we will be executing in the subsequent quarters with much better and higher margins.
Because the emphasis is now that we should improve our margins in all these business, having established ourselves in more than 460 cities with our channel partners. That's what you would see in our PAT and EBITDA for the rooftop business. Similarly, on our EPC products, you would see that our margins have improved, though we have not executed too many orders because the full benefit of lower prices of cells and modules, which we are now going to get, will get reflected in Q2, and but more in Q3 and Q4, because now we have ordered all of them, and they will start coming from the month of September onwards.
You would see that on an overall basis, we will be doing very well in all these businesses and the real, improvement and the benefits, you would start seeing in the subsequent quarters.
Sure. My second question is on Mundra, we see that the plant availability, despite Section 11 being in work, was, it's about 54%, in fact, down on a year-on-year basis. Why is that, and is there any update on the Mundra PPA resolution?
One of the units is down. There was a transformer failure in one of the units, so only four units are operating out of the five. We started operating under Section 11 from April 15th, because we were wanting to first resolve the FPA issue. Since Section 11 was already imposed, there was a delay from the procedural side to finalize it, and then we had been operating under Section 11. I think this quarter you will see our availability will improve drastically. Incidentally, the plant is operating, all the four units are operating, and being a low cost or one of the most efficient plants on merit order, it is related to all the other plants as well.
I think, you will see much better performance in terms of both availability and PLF. Yes, in the first quarter, we missed the first 15 days, and that's why you see a lower availability and PLF.
Got it. What is the implied equity value of Tata Projects from the fundraise which has happened there?
Sir, could you just repeat your question?
What is the implied equity value of Tata Projects for the fundraise which has happened, you know, in Tata Projects, what is the implied equity value for 100% equity stake?
Basically, you're talking about the number of shares that is held by TPPL. That has come down from 37.78% to 30.81%, and the book value per share is about INR 110 per share.
I'm not talking about the book value. I'm talking about the total implied equity value for Tata Projects.
For, for, you know, I, I think, we have a shareholding of about 31%, 30.81%-31%, which is at a book value of INR 110. You can simply multiply this by almost like 3.5x . That will be the total book value of the shares.
Okay, I will keep that separately. You know, finally, my question is on the 100 odd crores of income that you have booked from Maithon. That is a non-recurring income, right? So you should be adjusting it in the profits
No, it's not a nature of a non-recurring. I would say this is the nature of the business it is, because across our various customers, we keep on having this discussion on the tariff adjustments and the relief that we sought. For example, in this particular case, during the COVID, of course, the plant utilization was low, and we had to seek the relief, and they have given us the relief. It just takes time. Normally, every year, you will have something or the other coming up, right? We don't classify this as a non-recurring. Yeah, on the one particular plant, it may be non-recurring, but it will happen in some other plants.
Across our, the entire, thermal generation capacity, across the year, every year you have something or the other coming up, and that's the nature of the business.
Fair enough. For next five years, how do you foresee demand for group captive renewable capacities from Tata Group companies, especially Tata? That's my last question. Thank you.
The, there is lot of opportunity now, especially, there has been amendment in the policy, both on group captive as well as on open access. Where anything more than 100 kW, you can supply under open access. Group captive, the definition has been widened. You would find that, all the new plants of Tata Group which are coming, whether it is the electronics plant or the battery plant or any of the other new semiconductor initiatives, the growth of Tata Motors in the new plant, EV plant, which is coming up in Sanand. Everywhere you will find that we will have a huge opportunity, and we will virtually be having 100% renewable supply to all these customers. Apart from that, we are also getting huge opportunities outside.
We can share there's a very large list of group captive customers which we have tied up last quarter, and we continue to get it on a regular basis. You will see that our group captive business this year will be quite substantial.
These are my questions. Thank you. Wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Mohit Kumar from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, sir, thanks for the opportunity. The first question is on the on the the solar pumps. I understand that there is a new SECI bid, which is which you are bidding. Can you just explain the, is there any change in tender terms compared to last compared to the last tender, which was floated by CESL? What are the timelines for the bids?
The solar pumps, the last big bid happened was in 2020, and thereafter, the bids have still not happened. Now, CESL is not doing the bid, and it's been that mandate has been given to SECI. We still have to see what sort of new bids are coming. But what has also happened is that there are a number of states which are coming up with, with different combinations of these, not just solar pumps, but the rural electrification of grids. Like Maharashtra is coming up with a huge plan to set up nearly 7,000 MW of solar generation in rural areas, which is very close to existing grids, so that the evacuation of power takes place.
The purpose is that it will supply to the lower, to the local, areas in the rural areas, to, for pumping purpose, as well as for local supply to the other types of consumers. I think the different combinations of the KUSUM program will come, which I think will help a much better penetration of solar in rural areas.
Is it that you are less optimistic about the solar pump in the near term? Is that right assessment?
Not that, it will go certain modifications, because the earlier programs were not so successful. Hence, the each one of them, KUSUM has three components, KUSUM A, B, C. We are seeing that the KUSUM C initiative will possibly get more traction compared to the KUSUM A and B.
Understood. My second question is: how much is the capacity you expect on the renewable side to install in FY 24 and FY 25?
There, there are two parts. One is capacity bid out and capacity installation. Now, the installation of FY24 and FY25 will be all those which were bid out in the previous years. We have seen MNRE has also given extension up to March 31st for the projects which were ordered in 2021, 2022, and also for DCR projects up to September 30th, 2024. I think many of the projects which could not come earlier because of abnormal increase in project costs, increase in costs of cells and modules, those will get executed in this year. The ones that the bidding is being taken place, they will take about 24 months to come up, so they will only come in more, more in FY26 and FY27.
I think our capacity, how much you expect to install in FY24 and FY25? Is it possible to give the numbers?
I don't have that number. We can check from MNRE website or some of the people who carry out these reports.
Our number.
Our number. Our number is, I, I think in this year we are targeting to set up nearly 2.5 GW, which partly is for us and partly is a third party. That's the type of number that we are looking, that we will set up in this year. As I mentioned to you, we have nearly 4 GWh order, which is under execution, which includes for us also and outside. That, some of that will get into FY25.
Understood, sir. Thank you, and all the best. Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Puneet Gulati from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you so much. My first question is on the Odisha DISCOM. Can you help us understand how to read this, your performance versus AT&C losses? You know, till last quarter, I think it was, you were trending below the, the trajectory, and now this, this quarter it seems you are above the trajectory. How should one read that? You can give some more color there.
As I mentioned to you last quarter, because of the extreme weather conditions, the billing efficiency and collection efficiency is impacted. That's why when you have to see the distribution business, AT&C losses, you have to see on a 12-month rolling basis and not on three-month basis. Some of the supply that takes place in the month, in summer months, the collection happens in the subsequent months. Some of the earlier collections, which were better collected. I think you have to see more from a 12-month cycle rather than just seeing on quarter-to-quarter.
Many of these things gets, there is a lesser collection in one month, and in the next month you end up with doing 105% or 110% collection, and that will get reflected in the subsequent quarters.
Understood. Second question is on the Tata Power EPC business. What... This quarter also, margins seem to be a bit lower. What would that be attributable to, and where do you think, will these margins ultimately turn to?
I think the worst is behind us, as far as the EPC business is there, where we were under tremendous stress because there were some legacy orders which we had to execute. Now that the prices of cells and modules have come down, we will see getting reflected in Q3 and Q4. Q2 also, some of them will start seeing early stages of improvement. You will actually see the, all the improvements coming in the subsequent quarters, and we'll be able to do a much better margin going forward.
but I thought that hump was crossed last quarter itself, when we reported almost 10% EBITDA margin. So
Yeah. I think there, there are some rollovers which were there, which could not get completed in the month of March. They rolled over to April, May, and that's what is it. That's why you don't see too much of top line also compared to what we would have otherwise done. Going forward, you will find that our top line will also improve, and the bottom line will also improve.
Understood. Lastly, you know, you are one of the best capitalized firms in the, you know, available equity for renewable power. How are you positioning yourself in, in the, you know, city buildings as well? Do you think the current tariffs have become attractive enough for you to participate, or you think the expected IRR is still low from this?
See, now, we have our bank within which we operate, we ensure that we bid within those band. We have seen last year, we won large number of orders, nearly 2.6 GW of orders that we have won, and most of them were hybrid orders. They were not pure solar or pure wind. In many cases, we don't bid pure wind. We only bid either pure solar or hybrid solutions. You will find that the returns in complex solutions of hybrid are much better compared to the returns in pure vanilla solar or pure vanilla wind.
How is company prepared in terms of the, you know, more complex bids which are coming in from dispatchable power, et cetera?
You see, other than solar and wind, we have not won for storage. We will now go now that you would have heard that yesterday we went and signed the MOU for setting up pump hydro. Now, we will be in a position to offer combined solutions with storage also. I think, those projects we will be able to get much better returns.
Then what is the timeline one should think about those pump hydro projects? Still MOU, I presume.
Yeah, the benefit for us is that these will come up on our existing hydro plants.
Of course.
We've already done a lot of work. We actually have been working on that for more than last six to nine months.
Okay.
I can tell you that, we will possibly be one of the first ones who would come online.
How much capacity can you build on your existing hydro plants?
Right now, we have planned 2,800, but we have. This is only at two of the reservoirs. We have six reservoirs, so we've not-
Wow.
Actually gone for the full potential.
Okay, it's 2.8 GW on just two reservoirs?
Yeah.
Okay. That's it. All the best, thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Apoorva Bahadur from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. On this pump storage projects, just wanted to understand...
Sure.
what would be your capital cost?
See, typical, if you do a greenfield pump hydro, it would be about INR 7-8 crore. Since we already have the reservoir, we already have one of the, we have the dam over there, so the pump storage. We, our cost will be less than INR 5 crore.
These are all closed loops or open loop?
This is all closed loop.
Understood. secondly, on Mundra, just wanted to understand at what coal price will we operate Mundra, even without Section 11?
Well, let's see. Right now, we are in under discussion. Our objective is that, something similar to Section 11, we should be in a position to negotiate, and we will, we'll work out and let you know once it's decided.
Okay. Sir, I just wanted to clarify. In case Section 11 is not extended and the global coal prices decline, right, will we operate the plant or will we put it, I mean, what you were saying?
I'm optimistic that Section 11 will get extended or during the extended period, we will be able to find out a mutually acceptable solution.
Understood, sir. Sir, I think last, last question. Can you share the margin profile for group captive and rooftop projects that you are doing?
They are very good margins, I can tell you that. That's why you see there is a lot of focus now on group captive projects. Once the results start coming, we'll, we'll be able to show you more. Right now, these are very early stages of group captive projects, but I expect that by end of this financial year, we'll have some of them operating, and you will, you will be to see that details.
Just, for the projects that we're doing for Adani Group, I mean, if you can quantify the margin for this, will it be like-
We don't give the margin, but I can tell you those are good margin projects.
Okay, sir. Understood. Thanks.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Subhadip Mitra from Nuvama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is with regard to the coal profitability. If I, if I look at the numbers, you know, based on the JV and the associate numbers, which I understand, have the majority of the coal profits, clearly there is a decline on a YOY basis. However, on a QOQ basis, the numbers seem to have improved. Is it possible to get some color as to, you know, did we see better volumes on a QOQ basis, on the realizations or on the margins?
We'll share that with you, because the coal company has its own working in terms of how much of the mix of coal that they are supplying. It so happens that in some quarters it is more of high CV coal and less of less CV coal that they sell. Some quarters, we supply more of low CV coal and less of high CV. It depends on what sort of mining mix that they have and, and the profit comes based on that.
Okay, understood. Secondly, in terms of, you know, the upcoming renewable bids, right? There is a plan to auction out maybe 50 GW of renewables every year by the government. Along with that, you also have your own plans on the, the captive power side, on the C&I side, or on rooftop. As a strategy, how would you look at your annual renewable, you know, capacity addition? Would you, would you have an internal target of that, you know, the numbers?
Yeah. There is a number, but we play between the utility scale and, in terms of group captive. Wherever we find we have a better margin, we do that. We are typically looking at something like 2-2.5 GW of capacity addition every year.
2-2.5 GW of capacity addition every year?
Yeah. It's a mix of, you know, group captive and utility.
Of course. Of course. The pump hydro-related opportunity, now that we have already 2.5 GW of opportunity, that, that would be over and above this run rate of 2.5?
Yeah, that is to support the renewable power. Typically, it's in a three to one ratio. If I put a 2 GW of pump hydro, it can support 6 GW of 3-3.5x . 6-7 GW of renewable capacity for giving strong 24/7 power.
Understood. Understood. Understood. Would you be also looking at, you know... Is it going to be a combination of hydro plus solar plus wind, or more of solar plus hydro? How does the concentration go?
Depending upon what sort of requirement is there from customers. In some cases, it may be just solar and wind, but in some cases we will give a combination whereby we can give them 24/7 consistent power.
Understood. Last two questions from my side. Firstly, on the EPC side of things, again, with such a large quantum of, you know, tendering activity expected over the next few years, and so you would be sensing a large opportunity again, opening up on the EPC side. Any thoughts on, you know, how large this opportunity can be or what kind of market share you would like to take here? Also, what do you feel are the sustainable margins?
Again, for us, the first priority is to meet our own internal requirements. Whether it is the group captive or it is the utility scale, we will meet that requirement. I mentioned to you that we are looking at 3 GW, 2.5 GW. Thereafter, we will look at opportunities which are third-party opportunities. Again, it will be all dependent on what sort of margins we are getting and what sort of returns we will have in that. Also, now, earlier we used to do EPC projects with land. Now we don't do with land, so we do more of projects where the owner provides us the land and we develop the project for them.
It's again, a place where we are very, very careful and, there is a very calibrated approach that we have.
Understood. Lastly, on the Tata Projects stake sale, I think this question came up earlier as well. While you did mention that the, I think book value was around INR 110 per share, what was the price at which the transaction was done? Is it possible to know?
No. I think the way to look at it, we have not sold any stake, right? Because we did not participate in the right issue, our overall shareholding dropped from 48% to 31%. Because INR 1,500 crore of additional equity was included by the Tata Group, to that extent, the book value per share increased. As a result, we have to book the profit that we see as an exceptional item, which normally should be in the OCI balance sheet, but because this is not a subsidiary, but more of an associate, we had to book it in the P&L. This is non-cash item, as such, has no implication on the cash of the company.
Understood. This increasing of capital by Tata Group was again done at book value or at a higher number?
At a certain valuation.
Okay, okay. Would it be possible to know that number, or that's not available?
Yeah, I think it's already there as part of the release by, by Tata Project itself. We can forward that release to you separately.
Okay, perfect. Thank you so much for answering my questions.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Bharanidhar Vijayakumar from Spark Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good evening, sir.
Sir, you're not audible. Can you use your handset?
Better now? I'm using the handset. Is it better?
Yes, please go ahead.
Okay, go ahead.
I'm just trying to understand if the investment into pump storage opportunity would attract the regulated return of 16.5%. Is it the case?
No, no. This, this, we will combine with our renewable business. It has nothing to do with the... It's not on a regulated basis that we are doing this.
Then it will not be also for just peaking, peaking purposes, it will be a round-the-clock kind of.
It can be anything. It can be for peaking, it can be round-the-clock, depending what sort of combination we will use.
Okay. What is the update on the supplementary PPA for Mundra?
Right now, we are under Section 11. Let's see till what time it goes. Once it gets, we will look at the Section and the supplementary PPA.
Okay. On the Mundra side, you mentioned that, given variable costs has fallen, it's attractive for the DISCOM to schedule on merit order dispatch. This is for the powers of the plant. What would be like the variable cost per unit right now that is in Q1 FY24 from Mundra?
I, I think it's, around INR 5, but I don't have exact numbers, but it's around that number.
Okay. Okay, thank you so much. All the best.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Gaurav Kumar from TRG Corporate Ventures. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, sir. Am I audible, sir?
Yes, please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. My question is, the Tata Power is expanding in EV space. Can I know that, how much, does the EV station contribute, in your revenue?
There are three business. One is the home charger, which, we provide, against, a return. The second is the, bus charger, where again, it is, on a return basis that we do. The third is the public charger, where it is on a revenue basis. In the sense, if the, utilization is more, we get higher revenue; if it is less, we get less. There are two which, has a guaranteed return, including the fleet charger, while the one is a public charger, which is based on the demand.
You also install the EV, EV charging setup in restaurants and resorts as well. What is the revenue sharing structure? I just wanted to know that you have installed more than 2,000 EV, EV charging points. I just wanted to know that what revenue share is expected, and how much revenue do you, do you intend to generate in coming futures?
The typical arrangement with most of the people, whether they are in restaurants or shopping malls or any public parking place, or it is in petrol stations, it depends on the owner of that place. In some places it is a revenue sharing, in some places it's a fee that you have to give on a monthly basis or a yearly basis. The different places have different models, and we work on those lines. Of course, there is a presentation that has been put. You can see the details of each of these charges.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Sumit Kishore from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity again. The question is, what is the price of RE- RTC wind-solar hybrid, you know, with storage along with it? At what tariff do you think is it viable right now?
It all depends where you are putting up. If you are putting up in Maharashtra, it has a different. If you are putting up in Rajasthan-
Rajasthan, which is very sunny and, you know, or, you know, take a site which is windy and sunny.
Every place in the country is sunny. Why you tell me where it is not sunny?
The idea is, you know, the idea is more generally to see, you know, how low that tariff has come.
I, I would say that a INR 3 range is a good range. People who have gone and done crazy numbers, you know, then they are struggling to execute those projects and the margins are impacted. In a better sunny place, better wind speed, it can be INR 2.80 or INR 2.70. A INR 3± 10% is a good range. A reference, if you want to. It's a very thumb rule for that, yeah.
Yeah. Well, if you want to include storage along with it, say, battery energy storage systems or pump storage hydro, you know, for round-the-clock power. then, where would you see the RE- RTC tariff?
Sunil, this is more an academic question. Let me give you a very generic answer. Maybe an INR 5 tariff, sir, will be something that we have. It all depends, what sort of- see, then, if you want four hours of battery backup, or you want two hours of battery backup, it all depends on that. Very, very difficult to say a number and, and say that, this is the correct number, and we cannot give you.
Correct.
We cannot explain, sir, anyway.
Yeah. Just one question on the EPC business. We find that, you know, most of your utility-scale EPC order book, which is third party, is PSU-focused. You know, how is the risk sharing on price of procurement of modules between Tata Power and your PSU customers?
No one shares the risk, excepting that if there is any change in law that happens. The, the good thing with PSU is that you get paid on time. Many of the other developers don't pay on time, and that's why we have been very, very averse to bidding for non-PSUs.
You basically take the risk of procuring modules, and the volatility of prices in modules?
Absolutely. Excepting for change in law. If there's any change in law that takes place, that you get protected.
Sure. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Gopal Nawandhar from SBI Life Insurance. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks a lot for the opportunity. Receivables actually has gone up quarter-on-quarter. Can you just describe which business this relates to?
Receivables is a function of the business growth. Also, many of them are little cyclical in terms of, like I mentioned to you, that in summer months, the consumption in the distribution area increases, but the receivable comes in July month. May or June will be very high consumption, and payments will start coming in July and August. That's the cycle that you have. Also some of the cycles of some of the supplies that comes to us, we need to make payment depending upon what is the market condition. Sometimes we buy some of the material and stock it with us. There, what happens is, the receivables that we get change. I think over a period of time, our receivable number of days has reduced us.
Okay. The second question is that we are seeing correction in the cell and module prices. Obviously, it should help our existing order book in terms of execution. My question is on our plant, which we are putting for cell and module, how should, you know, one look at that project IRR, and whether the final product which comes out of this plant will be competitive enough to, you know, comparable with the import, or you will need some more support from the government to replace the import?
The, the cell and module, you know that there is a basic customs duty. On module, it is 30%, and on cell, it is 25%. That's gives the protection to the domestic manufacturer to the extent of the difference at which you would procure and pay the duty, which are the what you manufacture over here. In the Indian context, many of the plants, including our plant, we've got the PLI benefit and some of the other state incentives. I think we are going to be very competitive, and we are going to be very efficient, and we will be much, much better placed compared to the imported modules that others will.
Okay, okay. I'll just try to restate and understand. The point is, maybe, say, six months time, but it's back. When we started these projects, the prices were different, and now prices have come off. What will help you in terms of reducing the cost, or, you know, what are the-
The prices of the raw material also have reduced. Six months back, the wafer prices were INR 90 a kg. Now it is INR 40 a kg. Everything has gone down, so your production cost will come down to that extent, and you will be much more competitive.
Sure. The last bit on the wind side, we have seen that a significant reduction in the PLF year-on-year. Generally, this is a high season month. 3% reduction year-on-year, we have seen on the wind PLF. How should one look at it, this in terms, because there is-
Again, you, you should look at it all on a 12-month cycle. This year, the, the wind speeds in the month of June were very bad, but in July it has better. Last year, the June month was very good, but May was bad. These are things which are because of extreme weather conditions, things are changing. But on an overall basis, it is not happening. You have seen that Mumbai has got the rain, what it was expected to get in the month of July itself. August, there is no rain. June, there was very little of rain. I think on an overall basis, whatever rain it has to get, the precipitation is more or less the same. Yes, it changes.
What used to take three months to fill up, today it takes maybe two months or one and a half months to fill up today. That's what it is.
There is no change in the overall change in the assumption or say pattern, there's no structural change in the pattern itself?
No. No. If you see on a 12-month rolling basis, so if you see it on a one month or three-month basis, you will find a change.
Okay. Okay. Sure. Thanks a lot, sir.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Apoorva Bahadur from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Sir, regarding the adverse weather, weather events in Odisha, so, so, is it sort of allowed as a force majeure in terms of, the impact on performance, also the incremental CapEx that you would have to incur? Is it something that the company has to take a hit?
It is not a force majeure condition, unlike a full-fledged cyclone that takes place. What happens is, the regulatory system allows any of these type of CapEx that you need to incur, and you incur those CapEx as a part of your annual plan.
Okay. The impact on performance that it has, is that allowed under the handover agreement, or?
No, the impact on performance, you need to catch up on that.
Okay. How will the commission look at this performance? Will it look at it on a rolling basis, on a cumulative basis?
Everything is on a yearly basis. Nothing is on quarterly basis.
In case there's a bad weather event at the end of the year, and because of that, the performance is, is hampered, will it be penalized?
Yeah. You have to within the 12-month period. Earlier, I told you that if it is a declared cyclone or a declared extreme weather condition, then they would consider it suitably. If it is not a declared weather condition, then they don't consider.
Understood, sir. Thank you so much. All the best.
Thank you. We'll take a last question from the line of Rajesh Majumdar from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I have only one question. How should we read the profit of the share of associates and J.V. for this quarter? It has gone up on a sequential basis. What is the coal price approximately for the quarter? Should we take this as a sustainable runway going forward? Is there any change in the royalty tax which is incorporated in this also? Yeah, that's it.
Mainly, actually, there is a change in a quantity. Actually, there is a slight increase in quantity of sale this quarter. In addition to this, because the prices have come down, the cost of production also has been minimized. That effort has been put in by our coal chain partner. Those are the major things which have resulted in an increase in profit from our coal companies as compared to the Q4. In addition to that, definitely, the last year, previous year, there was a Tata Projects losses. That is not there this year. The losses have reduced substantially. If you remember last year, it was actually a super odd loss. This year it's hardly anything. Those are the two major things.
I think, I request, you to have a look at page number 32 of the uploaded, investor deck, which has the complete, breakdown.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. I now hand over the conference to Dr. Praveer Sinha for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you very much to all of you for joining on this call. If you have any more questions, please get in touch with my colleagues, Pratibha and Rajesh, and we'll be more than happy to share the details. I do look forward to having interaction with you during in the next few months. We will also have interaction with all the analysts like last year. Once we fix up the date, we will inform you folks. Thank you. Thank you for joining.
Thank you, sir. On behalf of Tata Power, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.