Dabhol power project shuts down from Thursday morning for want of gas

MahaVitaran bats for declaration of project as central generating station and power to be supplied at pool cost

Barely 10 days after the restoration of power at the erstwhile Dabhol power project, the Ratnagiri Gas & Power Pvt Ltd (RGPPL) was yet again forced to shut down and discontinue generation from Thursday morning for lack of gas supply. RGPPL official indicated that the plant would remain shut till the gas supply is restored.

 

RGPPL was generating 240 MW of power against its total generation capacity of 1,967 MW till Wednesday night since the restoration of power on January 28 after the supply of 1.9 million metric standard cubic meter per day (mmscmd) of gas from KG D6 and 0.2 MMSCMD from ONGC. The generation came to a halt on January 26.

Due to today's closure of Dabhol plant, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MahaVitaran), which procures 95% power from the Dabhol project, has revived its demand for the declaration of project as central generation project and supply its power at pool cost. MahaViataran has made a fresh demand in this regard to the Centre. MahaViataran official told Business Standard “The frequent closure of plant for want of gas will not do. Hence, we sincerely appeal to the Centre to declare Dabhol project as central generation project and supply power at pool cost. By this, MahaVitaran will be able to procure power at Rs 2.50 to 3 per unit instead of the current tariff of Rs 4.80 per unit.”

The official said even the MahaVitaran will be happy if it receives 1,000 MW against 1,967 MW at pool cost. Further, till the Centre declares the Dabhol project as central generation project the RGPPL can generate power for five days in the event of availability of gas and close it on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
RGPPL spokesman confirmed the closure of plant since Thursday morning and expressed its inability to resume generation until the restoration of gas supply.

RGPPL spokesman said “RGPPL requires about 8.5 MMSCMD gas for full operation and has been allocated 8.5 MMSCMD of gas by the Government of India. Of the 8.5 MMSCMD, 7.6 MMSCMD of gas was from KG D-6 Basin and 0.9 from Marginal Gasfields of ONGC (through GAIL). As against this, RGPPL is getting about 0.84 MMSCMD from RIL and 0.2 MMSCMD from GAIL. This is not sufficient to run even 1 (out of 6) gas turbines at technical minimum operating parameter and hence RGPPL is forced to resort to phased operation on a weekly basis."

He informed that RGPPL's generation loss was 3,095 million units following an average gas supply of 6.3 MMSCMD during 2011-12. Further, the generation loss during 2012-13 (till date) surged to a record 7,578 million units as the average gas supply dipped to 3.3 MMSCMD. Currently, RGPPL supplies almost entire power to MahaVitaran at the per unit tariff of Rs 4.80.

The company spokesman admitted that the spot R-LNG is abundantly available in open market (including RGPPL’s own LNG Terminal). "However the cost of power generated is overpriced compared to alternative sources available in the market at current prices of spot R-LNG ($17-$20 per million British thermal unit," he said.

Moreover, RGPPL official said during 2012-13 the company expects a plant load factor (PLF) of around 30% with around 40% annual fixed cost recovery while PLF during 2013-14 would be around 14% with around 19% annual fixed cost recovery as per current CERC (Central Electricity Regulatory Commission) norms. "Thus RGPPL is unlikely to meet its equity and debt servicing obligations after meeting its operating expenses from its annual revenue," the official noted.