NEW DELHI, June 24: Power situation in the city is likely to improve soon with Reliance Industries Ltd agreeing to supply gas to the Bawana power plant, built at a cost of Rs 4,500 crore, to facilitate generation of 750 MW of power.
“Reliance Industries Ltd has agreed to supply the gas to the plant. The nitty-grity of final gas purchase agreement is being finalised,” a top official of the Delhi government told.
After failing to get gas for the plant from RIL as per an earlier understanding, the Delhi government in February had sought intervention of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on gas allocation so that plant could generate 750 MW of power.
The EGoM in its meeting on February 24, heeding to the Delhi government’s request, had allocated 0.836 mmscmd (million metric standard cubic metres per day) to the plant from Reliance’s Andhra off-shore KG-D6 fields but the company had refused to supply the fuel citing drop in gas production.
Three turbines of the plant with a production capacity of 750 MW were synchronised in April last year and they started producing around 200 MW after ONGC started supplying 1.564 mmscmd gas.
The production capacity at the plant will go up to 1,500 MW within three months when three other turbines are synchronised.
The government was relying heavily on generation of power from the Bawana plant to meet the growing power demand during the summer months.
The city has been reeling under severe power cuts due to demand-supply gap and the situation has worsened worsened further after state-run NHPC cut 200 mega watt of supply to Reliance Infrastructure-backed discom BSES for non payment of dues to the tune of over Rs 200 crore. (PTI)
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