New Delhi: The beleaguered Dabhol power plant will from October 1 start buying natural gas from Reliance Industries to cut electricity generation cost at the nation's largest gas-fired unit.
"Yes, we will start taking (RIL's) KG-D6 gas from October
1," the Managing Director of Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd,
the company that runs the 2,150 MW power plant and adjoining
LNG receipt facility in Ratnagiri district of Maharasthra, A K
Ahuja, said.
The government has more than doubled RGPPL's allocation
from KG-D6 to 5.67 million standard cubic meters per day that
will help generate about 1,000 MW of electricity.
RGPPL was initially allocated 2.7 mmscmd of gas for the
period between April and September but the company had not
draw even a single unit as it had a running contract with
Petronet LNG Ltd to buy imported liquefied natural gas.
It paid a burner-tip price of USD 7.8 per million British
thermal unit for the regassified-LNG sourced from Petronet.
"The delivered price of KG-D6 gas would be USD 6.2 per
mmBtu," Ahuja said. "One dollar per mmBtu reduction in cost of
gas will bring down electricity generation tariff by 35 paisa
per unit."
RGPPL currently produces 950 MW of electricity at Rs 4.70
per unit. This would come down to Rs 4.2 per unit with KG-D6
gas.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, September 18, 2009, 14:28