By Sethuraman N R
(Reuters) -India’s Tata Power is interested in setting up small modular nuclear reactors, CEO Praveer Sinha said on Tuesday, days after the country said it will open up the much-guarded sector to private investments.
In the federal budget on Saturday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government will amend key laws that govern the sector.
Tata Power, a part of the salts-to-software conglomerate Tata Group, is waiting for more details on liability, technology, foreign partnerships and on fuel sourcing, its CEO said in a post earnings investor call.
Small nuclear plants need stringent approvals with the process taking about 24 months and the construction another 4-to-5 years, Sinha said.
“These projects are today becoming very common in various parts of the world. With many of the new technologies coming in, we should be in a position to implement them much faster in the country,” Sinha said.
India, which currently has about 8 gigawatt (GW) of nuclear capacity, aims to increase it to 20 GW by 2032.
Tata Power, which reported its third quarter earnings earlier in the day, posted profit below analysts’ estimates as softer demand weighed.
However, the CEO said there are signs of recovery in power demand.
He expects the peak power demand in India to overtake last year’s 250 gigawatts to about 265 to 270 GW due to an “intense” summer.
“Based on the requirement of power, we expect many of the imported coal-based plants will get the opportunity to work at full capacity,” the CEO said, adding that he expects Tata Power’s fire-hit 500-megawatt coal power plant in Mumbai to be up and running in the next 2-to-3 days.
(Reporting by Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
