OPGC owns and operates a 420 MW coal-fired power station in Orissa. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 1999. According to Shahzad Qasim, president of AES, the acquisition was strategic since it was the first electricity generating asset privatisation tender coming out of India. Electricity from the OPGC plant is sold to the Grid Corporation of Orissa under a 30-year agreement. The base load facility generates "low cost, competitive electricity" and is located adjacent to the 500 MW Valley greenfield project that is currently being developed by AES.

In January this year, AES won a bid to sell electricity from a 360 MW gas-fired plant in Haripur, Bangladesh. In June, it won another bid to sell electricity from a 450 MW gas-fired plant in Meghnaghat, also in Bangladesh. Its otheracquisitions include a $350 million electric distribution company, Edelap, in Buenos Aires and six coal-fired electric generating plants worth $950 million in New York state.

AES, based in Virginia, currently owns or has an interest in 90 power facilities totalling over 27,000 megawatts in the US, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Mexico, China and Britain. It also distributes electricity to 13 million customers.