Extra 70 MW capacity: Firm will need to invest RM 300m
Ranhill Power sees higher revenue from expanded plant
Business Times, Tuesday,15 June, 2004
By Zuraimi Abdullah
RANHILL Power Bhd is expecting up to RM60 million increases in revenue by supplying more electricity from its Talk Salute plant to the Saba State Government.
The company is increasing capacity at the plant to 190MW from 120MW and converting it from an open-cycle to a combined-cycle plant, chief executive Abdul Latif Rlahamud said.
The gas-fired plant currently contributes some RM130 million a year to Ranhill Power.
Abdul Latif said Ranhill Power expects to get the State Government's nod for the plant's expansion by the end of this month.
The extra 70MW capacity will require Ranhill Power to invest about RM300 million, Abdul Latif said in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
He said the Sabah State Government will be offered a lower unit price for electricity under a new power purchase agreement.
"The new tariff will be 20 per cent lower than the current rate. The conversion of the plant from an open-cycle plant to a combined-cycle one means cheaper cost per unit," Abdul Latif said. He did not elaborate.
The new construction is scheduled to start as early as September and to be completed within two years. Revenue is expected to start flowing in in the third quarter of 2006.
Abdul Latif said that more than half of the company's revenue currently comes from the power plant.
Ranhill Power, previously known as EPE Power Corp Bhd, expects to make a pre-tax profit of RM70 million on a turnover of RM245 million for the year ending December 2004.
The pre-tax profit will include a RM50 million extraordinary gain from loan write-backs and haircuts arising from the company's recent restructuring. With the 120MW plant, Ranhill Power is already a major independent power producer in Sabah , which demands 450MW annually.
The company wants to increase its power-generation capacity to 1,000MW by 2008, Abdul Latif said. This will be done either through acquisition or new projects locally or, abroad.
"We are aggressively looking at international markets," he said.
Ranhill Power also makes money from making and selling switchgears and transformers, mostly to Tenaga Nasional Blid as well as clients in 14 countries.
Orders in hand for such equipment are in excess of RM100 million, including RM32 million worth of export orders from West Asia .
Abdul Latif said Ranhill Power recently received a letter of intent from Tenaga for the supply of gas-insulated switchgears worth RM28 million.
Indirectly, the company is hoping to get another RM26 million worth of similar products from a contractor for Tenaga.
Tenaga provides up to 60 per cent of Ranhill Power's total business.
The company has built over 700 substations and maintains nearly 100 substations for Tenaga.
Ranhill Power has a manufacturing plant in Nilai, Negri Sembilan, that specialises in medium-voltage air-insulated switchgears and gas-insulated switchgears up to 36kV and hermetically-sealed distribution transformers up to 36kV
Back to Newsclippings | To top
|
