NLC India Limited (NLCIL), a public sector undertaking engaged in coal mining and power generation, has increased its green power generation by 39% and mining capacity by 66%.

The company added 17.5 MW of solar power generation with battery energy storage system (BESS) in the financial year (FY) 2020-21 and 500 MW of lignite-based thermal power production capacity. The power generating capacity of NLCIL and its subsidiaries now stands at 6,061.06 MW.

NLCIL and its subsidiaries generated 24,613 MU of power during FY 2020-21. The company has augmented its renewable power projects according to the government’s renewable energy vision. The present installed capacity of renewables stands at 1,421.06 MW. The renewable power generation is up by 39%, from 1.481 MU in the previous year to 2,057 MU in FY 2020-21.

In September 2020, with the commissioning of the entire 709 MW solar project in Tamil Nadu, NLCIL said that it had become the first central public service enterprise to have installed solar project capacity of more than 1 GW. The cumulative installed solar project capacity of NLC is 1,370 MW according to the company update.

NLC has formed a joint venture (JV) company with Coal India – Coal Lignite UrjaVikas Private Limited to venture into solar and thermal power projects across India. NLC has invited bids for the enlistment of domestic engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) vendors to construct ground-mounted solar projects being developed by the JV company.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, NLC India has so far floated tenders for 2.9 GW of large-scale solar power projects.

In 2019, the company forayed into trading power. Round-the-clock trading of surrendered power of NLCIL thermal power stations through the real-time market (RTM) commenced on June 1, 2020. NLCIL has since traded 868.78 MU, earning gross revenue of ₹2.16 billion (~$28.76 million), it said in a BSE filing.