The Hindu Business Line : Production at Dabhol from May 1 — Tariff being worked out, says Shinde

Power production from the first phase of Ratnagiri Gas & Power Company Ltd (earlier Dabhol Power Company) is being advanced to May 1 from the previous schedule of early June.

Maharashtra would then be able to save the costs it is incurring on overdrawing from the grid — overdrawn electricity costing Rs 5.5 per unit, including penalty, said Mr Sushilkumar Shinde, Union Minister for Power, at a news conference here on Saturday. This immediately appeared to indicate that Mr Shinde was hinting that the cost of power from the Ratnagiri plant would be less than Rs 5.50 a unit, but the Minister would not commit to any tariff. "I cannot tell you what the tariff will be," he said, adding that it was being worked out.

Currently, the plant has a stock of 34,000 tonnes of naphtha, and more of the fuel is going to be purchased, said Mr Shinde, who had earlier inaugurated the Western Region Unified Load Despatch and Communication System of Power Grid Corporation of India. The Government is trying to coordinate the purchase of gas for the plant, he said. Some more relief could come by Maharashtra (which is facing a shortage of over 4,000 megawatts/MW of electricity) through doubling of the Chandrapur-Bhadravati transmission line, said Mr Shinde. Currently, the line is able to transport only 50 MW, but when doubled, it can transport up to 500 MW. Maharashtra will have to then set about talking to other States and Power Trading Corporation for the purchase of electricity, he added.

CAMPAIGN TO CUT ELECTRICITY USAGE

The Maharashtra Government intends to install feeders to separate domestic consumption from agricultural consumption, and will spend Rs 2,000 crore on this over the next two years, said Mr Dilip Walse-Patil, Minister of Energy, Maharashtra.

This can ensure that agricultural users consume electricity only during non-peak hours, thus bringing down the load during those times, he said. Already, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat had done so, Mr Walse-Patil pointed out.

As to whether electricity cuts would be effected in Mumbai during the peak summer months, the Minister said that there would be a mass awareness programme conducted with the help of university students on February 28 to appeal to households and other users to cut their usage by 10 to 20 per cent. This could ensure that there would be no electricity cuts in the city during March, April and May, said the Minister.