'12 power plants solely dependent on KG-D6 gas lying idle'

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New Delhi: With generation capacity of more than 2,978 MW, 12 power projects that are solely dependent on gas supplies from the Krishna Godavari (KG)-D6 basin are lying idle, the government said today. Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said the supply of KG-D6 gas to power sector has been zero since March 2013.
"Quantum of gas supplied to power plants during first and second quarter of 2013 (till August 19, 2013) from KG-D6 was zero. Power plants dependent completely on KG-D6 are lying idle," he said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
There are 12 such projects having total generation capacity of 2,978.62 MW. These include 1,000 MW Pragati Power III and 220 MW Tanirbavi plants.
In a separate written reply, Scindia said his ministry had submitted that a base price of more than USD 5 per MMBTU of domestic natural gas "may become unviable for the power sector in the present context".
"Even though the decision of hike in the price of natural gas might be necessary, keeping in view the investment considerations, certain special dispensation for a critical sector such as power should be evaluated to enable this sector to continue to off take natural gas for power generation at a viable tariff level," the minister said.
Based on Rangarajan Committee recommendations, the government recently approved the gas price formula that would be applicable to all natural gas produced domestically from April 1, 2014, for a period of five years.