JOIN USPower 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 Delhi government top official said.
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.
Power demand has been on the rise and an all-time high demand of 5,330 MW was recorded on Friday. The city gets 2,400 MW from central quota, while nearly 1,000 MW is produced by Delhi's own electricity generating stations.
As per projection by Central Electricity Authority, the power demand in Delhi will jump to 8,700 MW by 2017.
Officials said commissioning of the plant may also result in drop in power tariff in the city as cost of power procurement will come down.
They said cost of per unit of power from Bawana plant would be in the range of Rs 4.30 to Rs 4.70.
Power being bought from Jhajhar power plant in Haryana currently cost in the range of Rs 5.50 to Rs 6.10 per unit. With this arrangement, power consumers in Delhi may get the much-needed relief during peak summer when air-conditioners are in high demand.