India’s Rich Halt Power Plans in Setback to Prosperity: Energy

Soaring coal prices across Asia have led India’s richest families to shelve plans for a record $36 billion investment in new power stations needed to fuel growth in the world’s second-fastest-growing major economy.

Billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Power Ltd., Gautam Adani’s Adani Power Ltd. and Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Energy Ltd. are among companies that mothballed plans to build 42 gigawatts of capacity, Association of Power Producers’ data show, equal to 68 percent of the government’s target for the five-year period that ends in March. While the government sets retail power prices, coal from Australia and Indonesia jumped 27 percent in the last two years, eroding profit margins at plants burning the fuel.