The Hindu Business Line : NTPC urged to expedite gas procurement

Northern States are turning the heat on State-owned power major NTPC Ltd to expedite fuel procurement for its gas-based stations in the region, which have been operating below capacity since last year due to inadequate gas availability. Beneficiary states such as Punjab, which has already petitioned the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) on the issue, have being voicing concerns at the practice of `mixed-firing' of NTPC's gas-based stations involving the use of expensive naptha for operations alternatively with gas, since this translates into the buyer State having to shell out a higher prices for power.

Costlier naphtha

Punjab, for instance, has claimed that it is being forced to schedule costlier naptha-based power from NTPC's northern stations due to the mixed firing of the gas-based projects. NTPC's gas-based generating stations in the northern region — the 817-MW Dadri and 652-MW Auraiya projects in Uttar Pradesh and the 413-MW Anta project in Rajasthan — have been functioning below capacity for several months due to inadequate fuel. Against the total requirement of 10.1 MMSCMD (million standard cubic meters per day) of gas for full-capacity utilisation of the three projects, NTPC has been able to arrange supply of only 5.8 MMSCMD, resulting in a scaling down of operations at its gas-based stations.

Efforts on to procure gas

Spot markets

According to NTPC officials, the utility has been making efforts to procure gas through spot markets and also to tie up arrangements for liquefied natural gas from the available sources. In the light of the concerns raised by the beneficiary states, NTPC has already made a presentation to them elaborating on the efforts being made for augmenting gas supplies to the generating stations in the region, company officials said.

In response to claims raised by states like Punjab that NTPC was taking advantage of mixed-firing by under-declaring capacity based on gas availability, the CERC has asked the utility to furnish the gas availability on a daily basis, based on information available with it, which is taken for declaring the plant capacity available with gas firing. The utility would also have to declare actual gas consumption on a daily basis, along with gas-meter readings to the Northern Regional Load Despatch Centre, according to CERC's order. NTPC has been asked by the regulator to undertake the exercise till August 31 this year for its Dadri, Anta and Auraiya projects.