With gas allocation issue hanging fire due to failure of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) to meet and decide on the issue, the 2400 MW Samalkot power project of Reliance Power in Andhra Pradesh, which has the potential to reduce power deficit in southern region, has been forced to wait in the wings for getting commissioned due to non allocation of gas for this project.
The Anil Ambani group-owned project is coming up at an investment of Rs. 10,000 crore at Samalkot in Andhra Pradesh. “The entire capacity is expected to be commissioned in a combined cycle by the end of 2012,’’ Reliance Power CEO J.P. Chalasani said here in a statement.
Hoping that allocation of gas would be taken up at the earliest, Mr. Chalasani said six gas turbines having combined capacity of about 1,450 MW have already been installed. This would be the country's largest gas-based plant. The Power Ministry has recommended a gas allocation of 9.6 mmscmd per day for the plant.
“We are hopeful of getting gas for the project shortly,’’ Mr. Chalasani said. He said the gas situation in the country is going to be dynamic and depending on how much gas is made available for the project, the company would look at other possibilities.
Mr. Chalasani noted that cost of electricity generation is expected to be lower since the project is near the gas source, which would help in reducing the transport input costs. The Samalkot plant would alone add over 15 per cent to power generation capacity in Andhra Pradesh, contributing to making the vast State self-sufficient in power capacity.
Regarding tariffs, he said that would be decided through competitive bidding and would depend on markets. The Samalkot project is expected to add around six per cent to the suthern region grid. Besides turbines from General Electric, other equipment has been supplied by various vendors including Belgium's Hamon, China's Xian Electric and South Korea's Hyundai.
