Adani Power's fourth-quarter profit jumps on strong demand

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian thermal power producer Adani Power's fourth-quarter profit jumped on Wednesday, helped by an increase in its electricity generating capacity and rising power demand in the country.

The company reported consolidated profit before tax of 35.58 billion Indian rupees ($426.3 million) in the quarter, compared with 8.98 billion rupees a year earlier.

Searing heatwaves and an uptick in economic activity have resulted in India's electricity generation growing at an average of about 8% annually following the pandemic year of 2020/21, outpacing power demand growth in every major global economy.

Adani Power's installed capacity was 15,250 megawatts (MW) as of the fourth quarter ending March, compared with 13,650 MW a year earlier.

The company, whose power plants are spread across seven states in the country, said its March-quarter consolidated power sales volume rose about 55% to 22.1 billion units from the same period a year earlier.

Its fuel costs, which account for 71.5% of total expenses, fell 2.2% in the reported quarter.

Adani Power's quarterly revenue rose 30.5% to 133.64 billion rupees.

India's weather office has forecast more heatwave days than normal between April and June this year, which will potentially boost power use and generation.

Rival JSW Energy will be reporting its results on May 7.

($1 = 83.4710 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)