Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Aug 17, 2006
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Corporate
-
Alliances & Joint Ventures Industry & Economy - Power
Anil Sasi
NTPC has been facing a critical situation due to low availability of natural gas for its gas-based plants.
New Delhi , Aug. 16 NTPC Ltd is in the process of sourcing gas in the spot market to increase generation at its gas-based stations. The company has tied-up supply of 5 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of LNG from Shell, GAIL India Ltd and Gujarat State Petronet Ltd (GSPL) through spot purchase. This follows a recent tie-up with Petronet LNG for 1 mmscmd of gas for a period of 70 days, company officials said. With no end to its ongoing gas-supply dispute with Reliance Industries Ltd row in sight, the company is planning to stay active in the spot market to purchase gas, they said. According to officials, the Shell gas supply is lower than GAIL price, with the variable charges for Anta, Auraiya and Dadri pegged at Rs 4.07, Rs 4.16 and Rs 4.11 per kWh respectively for Shell gas and Rs 4.50, Rs 4.73 and Rs 4.17 per kWh respectively for GAIL gas.
Critical situation
NTPC has been facing a critical situation due to low availability of natural gas for its gas-based plants. The demand supply gap of natural gas for NTPC's gas-based power stations at Anta, Auraiya, Dadri, Faridabad, Kawas and Jhanor-Gandhar has been on the rise. As against NTPC's requirement of around 15.4 mmscmd at 90 per cent PLF (plant load factor), the supplies from all sources were only of the order of 10.91 mmscmd last year, reducing the PLF level to around 60 per cent. The lower PLF has been affecting the tariff competitiveness of NTPC's plants since under the current regulations, the utility is required to demonstrate a minimum availability level of 80 per cent to achieve full fixed charges.
Generation cost
According to officials, the additional availability of gas is expected to bring down generation cost for the utility since it is currently `mixed-firing' its gas-based stations using expensive naptha and high speed diesel for operations alternatively with gas. Due to the high cost of generation on naphtha and HSD, beneficiary States in the northern region have been mounting pressure on the utility to increase its natural gas-based generation and minimise usage of naptha and HSD as fuel.
More Stories on : Alliances & Joint Ventures | Power | GAIL (India) Ltd
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page
|
Stories in this Section |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | The Hindu Images | Home |
Copyright © 2006, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|