The Anil Ambani owned Reliance Infrastructure has announced that its fiscal first quarter profit increased by 14 per cent. The company informed that this hike was made possible by higher operational efficiencies in power generation and higher orders for equipment. In the three months ended June 30, the net profit of the company increased to Rs 253 Crore.

The figure for the corresponding period of previous year was Rs 222 Crore. The Reliance Infrastructure’s total income hiked 32 per cent to Rs 2,618 Crore as against Rs1,984 Crore the previous year. The electrical energy’s cumulative sales upped marginally by 2 per cent to 2,539 million units during the period. The cumulative revenues from energy sales, however, during the quarter hiked by 37 per cent to Rs 1,764 Crore.

Lalit Jalan, chief executive of Reliance Infrastructure, said, ‘Our Dahanu power plant operated at over 100 per cent plant load factor(PLF) and this  resulted in getting better incentives from the regulator. Further, our EPC business grew by over 320 per cent.’

Sources revealed that Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Authority (MERC) proffers incentives crucially for enhanced PLF, oil consumption, station heat rate and other operational efficiencies. The Dahanu Thermal Power Station of the company registered a PLF of 103.2 per cent, generating 1,126 million units.

The PLF of Dahanu's was also higher at 104.5 per cent achieved during the corresponding quarter of previous year. The income of the company’s EPC division hiked to Rs 434 Crore for the quarter as compared to Rs 339 Crore in the corresponding previous period.

The division had an order book position of about Rs 21,044 crore as on June 30, 2008, as against Rs 5,035 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous year. Rs 47.40 Crore was the profits EPC and contracts generated for the period as compared to Rs Rs17.24 Crore in the corresponding previous year. Reliance Infrastructure presently is busy with six projects and putting into operation more than 3,500 MW of power projects.