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The board of Ratnagiri Gas & Power Pvt ltd (RGPPL), which operates 1,967 MW Dabhol power project in Maharashtra, is meeting at 12 noon in New Delhi to discuss issues relating to the deteriorating finances in the wake of frequent closure of power plant for want of gas and also explore opportunities to procure gas from alternate sources.
It is the maiden meeting today after RGPPL avoided turning a defaulter from August 1 after it paid Rs 68 crore as a part of its monthly instalment of Rs 100.8 towards debt servicing to its lenders.
RGPPL board member, who did not want to be identified, told Business Standard, "Dabhol project needs a total of 8.5 million standard cubic meter per day (mmscmd) of gas to achieve 1,967 MW of generation. Of the 8.5 mmscmd, nearly 7.6 mmscmd is linked to KG D6 gas while 0.9 mmscmd is from Oil & Natural Gas Corporation through GAIL India. The project was closed down since June 6 till June 24 and later it was restarted from June 25 and was operating 250 MW up to July 15. However, the project has been completely shut down since July 15. GAIL, which holds equity in the project, has proposed to organize gas supply other than KG D6 but again the price and the subsequent tariff revision is an issue. MahaVitaran, which procures 95% power from the project, is opposed to any move to revise tariff in the wake of procurement of gas other than KG D6 or the gas procured from ONGC through GAIL."
He admitted that the debt servicing is an issue.
"RGPPL will be able to recover cost of generation and supply if the project runs regularly and for that uninterrupted gas supply is necessary. Frequent closure will further increase problems especially with regard to timely debt servicing. The lenders are not at all happy with the present state of affairs."
RGPPL has a total debt of Rs 9,000 crore from ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, SBI and Canara Bank and since its restart in April 2006 it has so far repaid Rs 4,000 crore. Company's annual outgo towards debt servicing is Rs 1,300 crore.
The official informed that RGPPL has incurred a loss of Rs 1,156 crore towards fixed cost alone during 2012-13 as there was a total generation loss of 9,053 million units (MUs). Moreover, the company has incurred a loss of Rs 156 crore towards fixed cost, following the generation loss of 298 MUs during April and May 2013. RGPPL's generation loss was 3,095 MUs in 2011-12.
