Being one of the first industry in Ahmedabad to receive gas from the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd (GSPC) pipeline, the Ahmedabad Electricity Company (AEC) has revived its 100 megawatt gas-based combined cycle power plant at Vatva, which had been lying dormant for the past three years because of non availability of gas. | |
| GSPC and AEC have entered into an agreement, whereby GSPC will provide five lakh standard cubic metres of gas to the AEC power plant, which is located at phase IV of the Vatva GIDC on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. |
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| AEC will now be able to produce 20 lakh units of electricity per day to augment power supply to industries located in the industrial areas surrounding Ahmedabad. |
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| "With the revival of this plant, the Torrent group will now have two gas-based power plants in the state. We are already working towards a 1,095 mw gas-based power plant at Surat. Electricity generated at the Surat plant will also be made available to Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar," said Sudhir Mehta, chairman of the Torrent group, at a function organised at Vatva on Sunday to mark restarting of the power plant. |
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| Stating that power availability in Ahmedabad was as high as 99.8 per cent, which is perhaps the highest in the country, Mehta stated that the need is now to ensure that gas is made available across the state, so that more and more industries can use gas as fuel. |
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| This, he said, will further boost gas-based power generation. Chief minister Narendra Modi said, "Look at what the gas grid of GSPC has done. This electricity generation unit was lying idle for over three years. Today, it is in a position to supply electricity to several industrial units located nearby." |
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| Modi added that this marks not only resumption of power generation of the AEC plant, but soon, buses, rickshaws and other public vehicles will run on compressed natural gas. |
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| AEC's Vatva plant has been located in Vatva GIDC with the aim of reducing transmission and distribution losses to the industrial units located nearby. Its first gas turbine generator was commissioned in December 1990 and the second was commissioned in June 1991. |
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| Both gas turbine generators have a capacity of 32.5 mw, while the steam turbine generator, which was commissioned in October 1991, has a capacity of 35 mw. |
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| Inadequate and errant supply of gas had ensured that there was no power generation at the unit since March 2001. |
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| The power plant has now begun to function at full capacity of 100 mw. |
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