Vedanta Power Sales Jump 26% as Jharsuguda Swings to 98% Availability

Vedanta Power has posted the highest quarterly electricity sales in its history, and a single plant that was running at 43% availability a year ago, now operating at 98%, did much of the heavy lifting.

The Q2 FY27 result, filed with Indian stock exchanges on 3 October 2026, shows power sales rising 26% year-on-year to 5,593 million units (MU) across the portfolio. The first half of FY27 ran 32% ahead of the prior year, confirming the gain is a trend rather than a one-off.

For anyone tracking India’s private thermal power sector, the plant-level numbers are where the real story sits. They reveal exactly where the growth came from, and reading them correctly is the difference between seeing a broad recovery and seeing a concentrated one that depends on two specific facilities holding their gains.

How Vedanta Power reached a record quarterly sales figure

Start with the headline, because it is genuinely a record. Vedanta Power sold 5,593 MU of electricity in Q2 FY27, a 26% jump on the same quarter a year earlier and the company’s highest-ever quarterly figure.

Record quarter confirmed Q2 FY27 power sales reached 5,593 MU, up 26% year-on-year, the highest quarterly total in Vedanta Power’s history. First-half FY27 sales hit 10,817 MU, a 32% improvement on H1 FY26.

Now look beneath it, because the record is not the product of uniform growth. Talwandi Sabo, the largest plant in the portfolio at 1,980 MW, grew only 6% year-on-year to 2,945 MU. Its availability held at 86% across H1 FY27, comfortably above the 80% normative threshold in its power purchase agreement, but this is a steady baseload contribution, not a surge.

That matters for how you read the result. The headline 26% growth is carried by two plants doing something exceptional, while the biggest asset simply did its job. A record built on concentrated recovery carries a different risk profile than one built on broad-based portfolio improvement, and the distinction shapes whether Q2 FY27 is repeatable.

The portfolio runs 4,180 MW of operational capacity across four plants, with a further 600 MW under commissioning. Here is how the output split across the three reporting facilities.

Jharsuguda’s recovery from near-shutdown to near-full availability

A year ago, Jharsuguda was barely running. The 600 MW plant in Odisha recorded a Plant Availability Factor of just 43% in Q2 FY26, and Vedanta’s FY25 power business summary reported a Plant Load Factor of 47% across the full year.

Those were not signs of a structurally impaired asset. The suppression came from operational bottlenecks:

• Temporary ash evacuation constraints that reduced how much the plant could generate
• Scheduled repair and maintenance activities that interrupted availability

The resolution was equally specific. Over the following twelve months, the drivers of recovery fell into place:

• Ash evacuation constraints cleared and maintenance programmes completed
• Coal supply stabilised under established long-term fuel linkages that have supported the plant for nearly a decade
• Improved outage management kept the plant available for dispatch across almost the entire quarter

The result lands as earned, not given. Jharsuguda’s availability swung to 98% in Q2 FY27, and electricity sales reached 873 MU against just 305 MU a year earlier, a 186% year-on-year increase. That is the largest percentage gain anywhere in Vedanta’s portfolio. First-half sales reached 1,559 MU, up 59%.

What this tells you is that Jharsuguda’s contribution is an operational story, not a demand or tariff story. The same two variables that caused the collapse, ash handling and maintenance discipline, are the ones you watch to judge whether the recovery holds.

Whether 98% availability is sustainable

Holding 98% availability is a genuine achievement, but it rests on three things continuing to go right. The honest read is not a negative verdict; it is a list of what has to stay true.

Operationally, ash-handling infrastructure and maintenance both need sustained investment. These were the exact issues that drove the prior collapse, and they can erode availability quickly if neglected.

On fuel and regulation, the plant depends on coal linkages and faces evolving emission and ash-utilisation norms. Changes in fuel quality, transport, or regulatory enforcement could pressure availability.

On the market side, high availability does not automatically mean high dispatch. If renewables gain dispatch priority, Jharsuguda’s merchant and short-term exposure could leave it available but underutilised.

The renewables dispatch priority risk that Jharsuguda faces is inseparable from the pace at which grid-scale battery storage scales in India: until storage can firm variable supply at sufficient volume, thermal plants retain a structural dispatch role that keeps merchant exposure from becoming a chronic underutilisation problem.

Meenakshi Energy’s capacity expansion doubles its contribution

Meenakshi Energy’s output more than doubled, and the explanation is structural rather than market-driven. The 1,000 MW plant at Thamminapatnam in Andhra Pradesh sold 1,470 MU in Q2 FY27, a 111% year-on-year increase, with H1 FY27 sales of 2,820 MU, up 160%.

That surge was the predictable consequence of finishing capacity that was already being built. The commissioning sequence runs in four clear steps:

1. Two 150 MW units stabilised and operationalised earlier in 2025
2. Unit 3 (350 MW) entered commercial operation in July 2025
3. Unit 4 (350 MW) commissioned in August 2025, completing the full 1,000 MW base
4. All four units operational and contributing to the portfolio from the second half of 2025 onward

Vedanta acquired the distressed asset in 2023 following insolvency proceedings and multiple commissioning delays, then brought it to full operation within two years.

India’s coal power expansion in 2025 set the conditions that made Vedanta’s recovery commercially viable: tightening supply margins pushed merchant prices higher and gave distressed plants like Meenakshi a revenue environment that justified the capital required to complete commissioning.

Turnaround confirmed Vedanta’s press release of 28 August 2025, “Vedanta Revives Meenakshi Energy Within Two Years of Acquisition,” confirmed the plant was stabilised into a fully operational 1,000 MW asset, with all four units commissioned inside two years of the acquisition.

On offtake, a five-year power purchase agreement with Tamil Nadu Power Development Corporation Limited (TNPDCL) covers 300 MW at Rs 5.38 per kWh from 2026 to 2031, with the remaining capacity sold through merchant and short-term contracts.

Here is the calibration point for your forward expectations. Because the year-on-year comparison is against a period of partial capacity, the 111% growth reflects structural capacity addition, not a step-change in operating efficiency. Read it as a one-time step-up. From Q3 FY27, once the comparison base includes full capacity, that growth rate normalises sharply.

What Vedanta’s record result signals for India’s private thermal market

Step back from the company for a moment, because the result illustrates a sectoral pattern worth understanding. Vedanta Power is India’s fifth-largest private-sector merchant thermal producer, running 4,180 MW across four states with roughly 74% of sales under power purchase agreements and the balance in merchant and short-term markets.

That mixed model is where the structural tension lives, and it shows up inside Vedanta’s own portfolio.

• Talwandi Sabo operates under a 25-year PPA with Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) running to 2041, with an 80% normative availability threshold that entitles the plant to full fixed capacity charges regardless of actual offtake. That is revenue protection.
• Meenakshi Energy and Sakti carry merchant and short-term exposure, leaving their revenue subject to price and demand swings.

The contrast between contracted certainty and merchant risk is not unique to Vedanta; it runs across the independent power producer sector and shapes how each plant’s cash flows behave.

The dispatch environment that Vedanta’s plants operate in was further complicated just weeks before this result, when India’s power ministry issued an emergency coal power order that drafted 112 privately owned industrial plants into national service, a move that underscores how exposed the grid remains to thermal IPP availability.

The policy debate that Vedanta’s result does not resolve

A record quarter from recovered and expanded thermal capacity lands squarely in the middle of an unsettled debate, and it is worth presenting both sides.

On one side, regulators and policymakers emphasise energy security. They argue that a firm, dispatchable thermal fleet is necessary insurance against variable renewables and hydrological risk, at least through the 2030s, and that reviving stalled plants is faster and cheaper than building new ones.

On the other, institutions such as the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) caution that continued thermal expansion risks creating stranded assets as renewables plus storage costs fall through the 2030s. Long-term PPAs signed today, they warn, could lock utilities into higher-cost coal power.

Vedanta’s own communications reflect the tension, framing Meenakshi and Sakti as transitional assets within a broader decarbonisation strategy. The point for you as a reader is simple: the record quarter is as much a reminder of how exposed India’s near-term supply remains to thermal IPP health as it is a signal of Vedanta’s execution. That context matters before treating the result as a buy signal.

What holds the record together, and what could unwind it

The record rests on three interlocking contributions. Jharsuguda’s operational recovery supplied the largest percentage gain, Meenakshi’s completed capacity ramp supplied the second-largest absolute volume increase, and Talwandi Sabo’s steady contracted baseload held the foundation with 86% H1 FY27 availability, comfortably above its 80% normative threshold.

Whether Q2 FY27 becomes a platform or proves to be a peak depends on a specific set of variables. These are the three to monitor:

• Jharsuguda maintenance discipline: availability depends on continued investment in ash handling and maintenance, the exact issues that caused the prior collapse
• Meenakshi merchant performance: from Q3 FY27, the comparison base includes full 1,000 MW capacity, so the year-on-year growth rate will normalise sharply and the plant’s competitiveness in merchant markets becomes the real test
• Commissioning pipeline progress: the 600 MW currently under commissioning is the next structural growth variable, and it needs to proceed without significant delay

Read the result for what it is: strong execution that depends on holding operational gains, performing competitively from a now-full capacity base, and delivering the next tranche of capacity on schedule.

For investors tracking how the long-term stranded-asset risk to coal IPPs develops, our dedicated guide to India’s energy diversification pressures examines the specific supply vulnerabilities and import dependency dynamics that continue to slow the pace of renewables displacing thermal generation.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with financial professionals before making investment decisions. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Financial projections are subject to market conditions and various risk factors.