1. At a Glance – The PSU That Flows Slowly but Never Dries
NHPC Ltd is that one PSU which doesn’t scream growth, doesn’t promise moonshots, and still manages to sit quietly with a ₹80,501 Cr market cap, a 2.35% dividend yield, and 7,233 MW installed capacity like a retired uncle with multiple FDs and land in three states. The stock is currently hovering around ₹80, down ~4% over 3 months, which basically tells you the market is neither angry nor impressed — just mildly bored.
Latest Q3 FY26 numbers weren’t fireworks. Revenue at ₹2,221 Cr fell ~3% QoQ, PAT at ₹219 Cr declined ~5%, and OPM crashed to 10% for the quarter (yes, ten, not a typo). But zoom out and NHPC still prints 46%+ operating margins annually, throws out dividends like prasad, and sits on a hydro-heavy asset base that India desperately needs as renewables scale up.
Debt is chunky at ₹44,923 Cr, ROE is a sleepy 7.5%, but the pipeline is massive: 10.8 GW under construction, ₹11,762 Cr FY25 capex, Subansiri finally waking up, and ₹50,000 Cr MoUs flying around like wedding invitations.
So the question is simple:
Is NHPC a boring PSU bond disguised as a stock… or a long-cycle infrastructure compounding machine hiding behind waterfalls?
2. Introduction – India’s Hydropower Giant That Refuses to Trend
NHPC is not here to trend on Twitter.
It doesn’t do flashy investor decks.
It doesn’t talk about “AI-enabled hydro synergy”.
NHPC does one thing: generate electricity from water, bill discoms, wait patiently for payments, and repeat this process for decades. Founded as the Government of India’s flagship hydropower utility, NHPC today controls ~15% of India’s total hydropower capacity, spread across 28 power stations, 15 states, and 2 UTs.
Hydropower is boring — until it isn’t.
When coal prices spike, water looks beautiful.
When solar sleeps at night, hydro becomes king.
When India wants grid stability, pumped storage suddenly becomes sexy.
NHPC sits exactly at that boring–important intersection.
But here’s the catch:
Hydropower is capital intensive, politically messy, environmentally sensitive, and slow. Projects take years, sometimes decades.
Costs balloon. Court cases pop up. States delay payments. And yet, once commissioned, these assets print stable cash flows for 40–50 years.
NHPC’s story today is less about last quarter’s PAT and more about what happens when 10,000+ MW under construction starts dripping electrons into the grid.
Before we get excited though — let’s understand what this company actually does.
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Think of NHPC as India’s national water-to-electricity converter.
Core Business
- Hydropower generation (bulk of revenue)
- Sale of power to state utilities & central agencies
- Project management & consultancy (side income)
- Power trading (minor)
Capacity Snapshot (Q3 FY25)
- Total Installed Capacity: 7,233 MW
- Hydropower: 6,971 MW
- Renewables (solar): balance
- Operational footprint: 28 power stations
Operations Breakdown
Standalone NHPC:
- Capacity: 5,551 MW
- FY24 Generation: 21,773 MU
- PAF dropped to 77.6% from 88.2% (water gods were not kind)
Subsidiary – NHDC:
- Capacity: 1,528 MW
- FY24 Generation: 4,473 MU
- PAF: 96.4% (clearly someone there did puja properly)
Hydropower economics are simple:
- High upfront capex
- Low operating cost
- Long asset life
- Stable tariffs
Once a plant is commissioned, EBITDA margins are fat. The problem is getting there.
Which brings us to NHPC’s favourite hobby: construction.
4. Financials Overview – Numbers That Move Like a River, Not a Bullet Train
Quarterly Comparison Table (₹ Cr except EPS)
| Metric | Latest Qtr (Q3 FY26) | YoY Qtr | Prev Qtr | YoY % | QoQ % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 2,221 | 2,287 | 3,365 | -2.9% | -34.0% |
| EBITDA | 212 | 1,015 | 2,027 | -79.1% | -89.5% |
| PAT | 219 | 231 | 1,219 | -5.2% | -82.0% |
| EPS (₹) | 0.22 | 0.23 | 1.02 | -4.3% | -78.4% |
