Reliance agrees to feed gas to Bawana plant,city’s power supply to improve

“The final gas purchase agreement is being readied,” a senior Power official said.

Delhi residents are facing power cuts as demand is on the rise in the peak summer months,with the city recording its highest ever electricity demand of 5,330 megawatts last Friday.

The shortage worsened recently after the state-run NHPC cut 200 MW of supply to BSES,after it reportedly defaulted on payment.

The government had in February petitioned Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee,who also heads an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on gas allocation,after an earlier understanding with the RIL on gas supply for the plant fell through.

In February,the EGoM offered respite to the government by allocating 0.836 mmscmd (million metric standard cubic metres per day) supply to the plant from Reliance’s Andhra Pradesh off-shore KG-D6 fields,but the company cited a drop in gas production and stayed away.

Three turbines of the plant,with a production capacity of 750 MW,were synchronised in April last year and they started producing around 200 MW after the ONGC began the supply of 1.564 mmscmd gas.

The production capacity at the plant will go up to 1,500 MW within three months when three other turbines are synchronised,said a Power official.

“We were hopeful that electricity from the Bawana plant will feed the estimated power demand this summer. But our plans were skewed because of this confusion,” the official said.

The city gets 2,400 MW from central quota,while nearly 1,000 MW is produced by Delhi’s power generating stations. As per projection by Central Electricity Authority,the power demand in Delhi will jump to 8,700 MW by 2017.

Officials said commissioning of the Bawana plant may also result in drop in power tariff in the city as cost of power procurement will come down. They said cost of per unit of power from Bawana plant would be in the range of Rs 4.30 and Rs 4.70.

Power being bought from Jhajhar power plant in Haryana currently cost in the range of Rs 5.50 to Rs 6.10 per unit.