Net sales increased to Rs 593 crore during the quarter from Rs 578 crore in the same quarter of the previous year.

Vice-chairman Sanjiv Goenka said CESC, whose 567sqkm licence area includes Kolkata, some adjoining areas and Howrah, saw sales increasing by 8% during the quarter with new malls, commercial properties and housing coming up.

During the quarter, CESC sold 1514 million units of power, against 1397m units in the same quarter of the previous year, an increase of 8%.

He pointed out that the West Bengal State Electricity Regulatory Commission has cut CESC's tariffs for the third year in a row. At the same time, utilities from which CESC buys some power (around 300 mw) were granted tariff increases.

Despite this, CESC managed to lift profits with a mix of better management and operational efficiencies like a two percentage point increase in plant load factor (PLF). Average PLF is now 93%.

"Tariffs in every terrain except CESC's have gone up," Goenka pointed out.

The 1000mw Budge Budge unit has become a model of pollution control under the Clean Development Mechanism of the United Nations and will soon be eligible to earn substantial carbon credits, Goenka said.

As for the three new projects planned at Haldia, Dumka in Jharkhand and Dhenkanal in Orissa, Goenka said the projects are at various stages and funding would be from internal accruals. The three projects add up to 4000mw.