Andhra Pradesh would incur an additional financial burden of Rs 870 crore due to decline in generation from gas-based power plants during the new financial year.
This is because the power utilities have to offset the domestic shortfall with additional purchases from outside the state at a higher cost, according to APTransco.
The power utilities have provided a revised availability projections of 9,189 million units (mu) for 2012-13, a shortfall of 6,514 mu on the gas power front with natural gas production in the K-G gas expected to further come down by 15 mmscmd (million metric standard cubic metre per day) as per the communication received from the petroleum ministry.
As against 12.97 mmscmd required to run the installed capacities of over 2,700 Mw in the state, gas power stations are receiving only 6.9 mmscmd. As a result, they are forced to operate at little less than 50 per cent plant load factor (PLF). In 2012-13, the availability of gas to these power stations is expected to be only 5.5 mmscmd, according to Ajai Jain, chairman and managing director of APTransco.
Moreover, new units with a total capacity of 2,000 Mw are kept idle for want of natural gas while projects with another 2,000 Mw will be added in another three months in the state. "In the absence of natural gas, these projects are going to remain as giant monuments," said Jain. The 2,600-Mw Samalkot gas power project being set up by Reliance Power of the Anil Ambani group is also one of them.
The state power utilities have proposed to buy 12,500 mu, as against the total estimated requirement of 79,462 mu for the full year through short-term contracts from outside at an average rate of Rs 4.20 paise per unit with an upper ceiling of Rs 5.50. Under the existing PPAs, the state procures at little less than Rs 2.50 per unit from gas power stations.
Revised tariff to bring in Rs 4400 cr
The power utilities currently supply with a cost to serve expenditure of Rs 4.42 per unit as against the net revenue realisation of Rs 2.99 per unit. This gap has now been taken care of by the tariff hike that comes into effect from today (April 1).
The utilities are expected to mop up an additional Rs 4,400 crore through raised tariff. The power sector subsidy by the state government has been increased to Rs 5,358 crore from Rs 4,300 crore last year. Of this, Rs 2,780 crore goes to the free power scheme in the agriculture sector while domestic households get Rs 1,759 crore, according to Jain.
Meanwhile, the additional generation of 220-250 Mw by utilising 1.1 mmscmd of natural gas was made available to projects by Reliance Industries through the swapping of RLNG starting today, Jain said.
This power will be utilised to meet the requirements of small industries, which will see reduction in power cuts to one day from two in a week, according to him.
