A delegation of Association of Power Producers led by Director General Ashok Khurana and Anil Ambani of Reliance ADAG, called on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and discussed issues relating to power sector and gas supply concerns.

The delegation included GV Sanjay Reddy of GVK Group, L Madhusudhan Rao, Chairman, Lanco Infratech and GBS Raju of GMR Group, among others. Anil Ambani has also met the Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, and held talks over potential of investments in the infrastructure and telecom sectors in the State.

During the meeting held at the CM’s camp office in Lake View guest house, the issue of gas supply for 7000 MW of gas based power plants, now lying idle, was discussed in detail and also possible ways out of this current situation.

According to sources in the AP Chief Minister’s Office, the Chief Minister assured the delegation of taking up the issue of gas supply with the Centre and also considering setting up of a LNG terminal and floating storage terminal and re-gasification unit in the Krishna Godavari Basin to benefit the independent power producers (IPPs) and other consumers.

The gas based projects are unable to generate power as the supply of natural gas has progressively dwindled from the KG basin wells. This has added to the woes of the State and also the developers of these projects, whose huge investments are lying idle for want of gas.

With the new gas pricing mechanism at advanced stage of finalisation and the possibility of Reliance Industries increasing the output from the KG basin wells, as also ONGC and GSPC likely to step up investments, there is some fresh hope of additional gas flow over the next 12-18 months.

The Government is also at advanced stage of according clearances for LNG terminal, which will be an alternate source of fuel for these plants even though the cost would be higher than the domestic gas.

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