Technical glitches hit International Power

International Power will take a hit of £45m due to a string of technical troubles at its coal-powered energy station at Staffordshire, Rugeley. Company employs two generators at the said power station, however, it is facing problem with both the generators. One of the generators was turned off earlier this year for recommissioning and could not be restarted due to collapse of a key component. This generator is expected to get operational by the September end. Other generator is working at limited capacity as it is not in compliance with new emission regulations. International Power’s Australian facility at Hazelwood is also facing the same problem.

Philip Cox of International Power has claimed that despite these problems, bottom line of International power is still strong. International Powers has business interest in 20 countries. International Power has recorded £495 million profit for the first six months of 2008, this is 19 percent increase over last year’s profit for the same time. International Power is also aggressive on the expansion front. It has recently acquired 4 power plants in United States. It has paid £432 million for acquiring them. It is also expected to issue £395 million bonds for financing further acquisitions.

Cox has charted the course to be taken by International Power. He has said that International Power will be augmenting its capacity by various methods. It would be increasing capacity of its existing plants, acquiring and building new plants. It is also looking to expand its capacity in regions such as South-East Asia and Middle East. Despite escalating cost of building new power-plants and technical troubles, International power is on firm ground thanks to the rising demand for energy.

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