NEW DELHI: With a hike in gas price looming over their heads, Delhi's power distribution companies are a worried lot.
While the BSES companies are yet to chalk out a plan on how to control their costs, Tata PowerDelhi has asked Delhi government and Centre to consider re-allocation of power from gas-based power stations for them. The discom said that if re-allocation of power from gas-based power stations was not done, it would lead to an increase in cost of power purchase and, consequently, tariff.
Delhi gets power from three central sector power stations—Dadri gas, Auraiya and Anta—and three plants owned by the Delhi government—Pragati power station, Bawana and gas turbine power station. The city gets approximately 1,255 MW power from gas-based power stations.
"The cost of power procured from these power stations is about Rs 3.49/unit to Rs 4.15/unit which when compared to the cost of power from other plants is on the higher side. When gas prices are increased from April, cost of power produced from these plants will rise by about 66% over the present cost—Rs 5.34/unit to Rs 6.20/unit," said an official.
According to Tata Power Delhi, it has made adequate arrangements for meeting the 2014 summer demand at much lower rates. It's also assured of meeting any contingencies at a price which, it says, would be much lower than the estimated price from gas station produced plants. Tata Power Delhi gets 237MW from gas-based power stations.
"It is requested that power produced from these plants be reallocated to needy states for 2014-15 by the ministry of power. If reallocation of power from gas stations is not done it would result in an increase in tariff. During off peak/night hours when the demand is low, these stations are run at minimum capacity or not run at all thereby resulting in discoms paying up fixed costs for these plants," said a Tata Power official.
The BSES discoms, Rajdhani and Yamuna, are trying to work out a formula on how to bring down costs but have not sent any official communication to the government yet. "Concerns are there, especially as we have long term PPAs with gas based power plants. We are looking at our options and working out a solution," said an official.
The issue of increase in gas price from April 1 was raised by former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal recently. Kejriwal alleged that the price hike was a result of collusion between some union ministers and Reliance Industries and said that RIL did not produce adequate gas from its eastern offshore KG basin in order to put pressure on the government to hike the price. The central government should give KG-D6 wells to ONGC, he said.
with thanks : Times of India : LINK
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