The Government on Wednesday took stock of the power situation in the country, including the fuel supply and pricing issues affecting the power sector.

“We are working proactively and drawing up an action plan to increase power generation. We have looked at all options, including what needs to be done with the stranded gas-based power plants,” said Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy.

Crisis plan

Goyal, along with Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Petroleum and Natural Gas, met the various stakeholders of the sector on Wednesday to work out a crisis management plan.

He said that the meeting was a precursor to several decisions that will come in due course.

“As soon as we have discussed it with all stakeholders, the decisions will be taken and we will share them with you,” Goyal said.

On being asked whether gas-price pooling for the power sector will become a reality this financial year, he said that all options are open and the effort is to make gas-based power a ‘spinning reserve’.

Pooling is deriving an average price for gas produced domestically from all sources. It is expected that the pooled price will also have an element of imported gas.

At present, there are several gas pricing regimes in the country: administered pricing mechanism, market-determined pricing based on schedules and guidelines issued by the Government, pricing based on a formula approved by the Government, arm’s length pricing, and pricing under the production sharing contract regime.

According to the power industry, every dollar increase in the price of gas will result in electricity costs going up by almost 45 paise a unit.

Goyal said that the meeting between the two Ministries was to come up with a concrete plan to keep power tariffs low.

The Minister added that power generation would go up by 50 per cent if the issue of stranded assets was resolved.

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