Hyderabad, July 01: Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday urged the Empowered Group of Ministers to convert the fall back supply of 3.22 MMSCMD of gas to firm allocation so that the gas based projects in the state can continue to supply reliable power to Andhra Pradesh.
In separate letters to Union Minister for Finance and Chairman, Empowered Group of Ministers on Natural Gas Pranab Kumar Mukherjee, Union Minister for Power Sushil Kumar Shinde and Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas S Jaipal Reddy, the Chief Minister requested them to recommend to the EGoM, for the conversion of gas supply.
Pointing out that there are nine gas based power projects in operation with a total capacity of 2770 MW contributing 55 MU/day, vital for Andhra Pradesh, the Chief Minister said that natural gas required for these projects is 12.97 MMSCMD.
As per Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas directions, the RIL is supplying available KG D-6 gas to core sectors such as fertilizers, LPG, Power and CGD (domestic and transport) from May 9, 2011.
Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy pointed out that this has resulted in increasing the RIL D-6 natural gas supplies to the IPPs of Andhra Pradesh up to their firm quantities (75 per cent requirement) as recommended by EGoM, Government of India.
He pointed out that there is a deficit of 3.22 MMSCMD gas requirement considering the ONGC supplies also and added that the Reliance Industries had supplied said 3.22 MMSCMD gas on fall back basis up to October 2010.
“The supply of entire fall back quantity has been stopped from November 2010, resulting in loss of generation of about 600 MW to the State,” the Chief Minister said.
He added that though all the gas power projects are geared up to generate up to their rated capacities, the gas based IPPs in the state are not able to generate 100 per cent power due to non-supply of 3.22 MMSCMD of fall back quantity.
“The demand for power in the ensuing Kharif season is expected to pickup in the coming months resulting in State facing shortage of power,” Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy wrote.
He requested the EGoM that in light of the points raised, to convert the fall back supply of 3.22 MMSCMD to firm allocation during its ensuing meeting.
——-Agencies