One-third of state's power capacity remains idle: Patel

State faces cost burden of over Rs 2,200 crore per annum due to idle capacities

Over one third of Gujarat’s power generation capacity from conventional sources is lying idle due to lower demand for power and non availability of natural gas from Centre, Gujarat government officials informed today.

Out of the total installed capacity of 17,300 megawatt (Mw) from coal and gas resources, nearly 6500 Mw generation capacity is not producing power. “Gujarat’s 5000 Mw of gas-based capacity involving an investment of around Rs  20,000 crore is lying idle due to non-availability of gas,” said Saurabh Patel, energy and petrochemicals minister, Gujarat government, while addressing an industry event organised by Baroda Management Association (BMA) in Vadodara today.

“Centre’s policies are responsible for idle capacities of gas-based power plants. We do not get cheaper gas due to faulty policies of Centre,” Patel said.  Also, the senior government officials informed that already 1500 Mw of coal-based power plants are shut for over last six months due to the lack of buyers. Notably, the state has the peak electricity demand of 12,350 Mw.

“Idle gas-based capacity is causing loss to the tune of Rs  1,000 crore annually in the form of fixed cost,” Patel told media persons on the sidelines of the event. “Another 1500 Mw of coal-based capacity is idle for past six months due to lack of buyers. This has caused a loss of Rs  600 crore as a fixed cost as plants remain idle. Annually this loss works out to be around Rs  1200 crore,” a senior government official said.

According to sources, the state is unable to sell power in the open market as there is low demand. “Southern India faces shortage of power. But we are unable to cater to this market as there is no connectivity between southern transmission corridor and western corridor,” Patel added.

He also mentioned that many industrial consumers are increasingly buying cheap power through power exchanges. “Open access has posed another challenge as we see most of the HT consumers buy from open market. This is bad for the power sector in the state,” he said.