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India Power Giant Weighs New Plants as Coal Phase-Out Must Wait

  • NTPC chairman says it will take 2-3 decades to phase out coal
  • Singh says ‘24/7 reliable, affordable power’ is the priority
Cooling towers at the coal-fired NTPC Simhadri thermal power plant in Andhra Pradesh, India.
Cooling towers at the coal-fired NTPC Simhadri thermal power plant in Andhra Pradesh, India.Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

India’s state power giant NTPC Ltd. said it may have to add new coal power capacity to meet the country’s surging demand for electricity, a policy shift triggered by recent energy shortages.

“It’s too early” to talk about a coal phase-out, Gurdeep Singh, chairman at the New Delhi-based power producer, said at the BloombergNEF summit in New Delhi on Wednesday. “It’s going to take 2-3 decades, if not more.”