Reliance Power Q3 net up 42 pct on higher generation

People walk pass a billboard advertising Reliance Power, at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in Mumbai February 11, 2008.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Reliance Power (RPOL.NS), the country's second-largest power utility by market value after state-run NTPC (NTPC.NS), posted a 42 percent jump in quarterly net profit aided by higher generation and a doubling of other income.

Reliance Power, controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, on Monday said net profit rose to 2.04 billion rupees in three months through December, while sales jumped 82 percent to 4.57 billion rupees from a year ago.

The power utility generated 987 million kilowatt-hours in the December-quarter, about 40 percent higher from a year earlier, while income from investments doubled to 2.1 billion rupees.

Even though its fuel costs nearly doubled to 2.56 billion rupees in the December-quarter from a year earlier, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, they fell 11 percent as the utility consumed more of cheaper domestic coal, paring costlier imports.

India's power companies are struggling to source fuel, as domestic coal production stagnates and gas production remains steeply below expectation, raising generators' dependence on costlier imports.

Reliance Power is awaiting gas supply for its 2400-MW facility in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, which it said earlier this month was ready for generation.

"We are hopeful that we will get gas," Chief Executive Officer J.P. Chalasani told reporters in Mumbai on Monday.

Reliance Power operates a 900 MW plant, including the 300 MW unit it added at 2011-end, and plans to raise capacity to 5,000 MW by December. The capacity utilisation at its operational 600 MW in the December-quarter was 75 percent.

Shares in Reliance Power, which the market values at about $6 billion, ended 1.33 percent higher at 106.80 rupees on Monday, in a Mumbai market that closed 0.14 percent higher. Its shares have gained nearly 50 percent this year, against a 15 percent gain in the key benchmark.

(Reporting by Ketan Bondre in MUMBAI and Sanjeev Choudhary in NEW DELHI; editing by Malini Menon)