Government of Rajasthan requests for additional Gas suuply for Dholpur CCPP

Concerned over severe cutbacks in natural gas supply from the Panna-Mukta-Tapti (PMT) gas fields to Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited's (RRVUNL) Dholpur power plant, in Rajasthan, the state minister for Energy, Higher Education and Information Technology & Communication, Jitendra Singh, has petitioned the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) to intervene and ensure that the plant gets the full allotted 1.5 MMSCMD of gas.

• In a communiqué to the Petroleum Minister, Murli Deora, Singh has asserted though the plant has always faced a 0.1 MMSCMD deficit in gas supply, the availability of gas for the 330 MW combined cycle power project (CCPP) has drastically declined to only 0.7 MMSCMD since July this year, due to a forced outage of the Tapti gas wells.
• This is not enough to run the plant at even 50% PLF, asserts Singh, while asking for expeditious corrective action.
• Thus, the state minister has called on the MoPNG to direct the ONGC-operated PMT consortium to resume supplies at the earliest, so as to help the northern state meet the increased power demand from the agricultural sector over October 2010-March 2011.