NTPC Q1 net up 27 pct, to add more capacity

Net profit up on higher power generation

* To add 3,300 MW capacity this FY

* To appoint merchant bankers for buying coal mines abroad

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NEW DELHI, July 27 (Reuters) - India's NTPC Ltd (NTPC.BO) on Monday said its net profit rose by more than a quarter on higher electricity sales and it planned to increase generation capacity by a tenth in the current fiscal year.

Chairman R.S. Sharma said NTPC, India's largest power producer, would spend 170 billion rupees ($3.5 billion) during the year to March 2010 to add 3,300 megawatts (MW) more to its capacity of about 31,000 MW at the end of March 2009.

NTPC has been scouting for coal mines abroad to feed its plants and is in the process of appointing merchant bankers for buying coal blocks in Indonesia, Mozambique and Australia, Sharma said. Merchant bankers and technical consultants for two coal blocks in Indonesia would be appointed within a week, he said.

The state-run firm said its net profit rose to 21.9 billion rupees for its fiscal first-quarter ended June from 17.3 billion a year earlier.

Net sales rose to 120 billion rupees from 95.4 billion rupees.

"Primarily it's on generation growth," Sharma told reporters of the rise in net profit.

NTPC generated 11 percent more power at 52.14 billion units in the April-June quarter, from 46.97 billion units during the year-ago period, he said.

Coal shortages in India are plaguing growth in power generation and the government earlier this month said the country would be able to add only 70 percent of its planned target of 14.5 gigawatts capacity for the year to March 2010.

But NTPC has not suffered any generation loss due to coal shortage, Sharma said and was confident about the future.

"I must be able to maintain generation level at (more than) 90 percent," he said.

NTPC plans to import 12.5 million tonnes of coal this fiscal, higher than 8.5 million tonnes it imported last fiscal, Sharma said. ($1=48.2 rupees) (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Mariam Karouny)