Delhi may have to sweat it out this summer since Reliance Industries Ltd has declined to sign a contract for supplying gas to the city's Bawana power plant, jeopardizing Pragati Power Corporation's efforts to make up a shortfall of some 500 MW. Reliance operates the country's biggest gas field off the Andhra coast but has expressed inability to sign the GSPA (gas sale-purchase agreement) with Pragati Power on ground that it does not have enough gas. Reliance did not offer any comment.
The Centre had earmarked almost one million cubic metres per day (mcmd) of gas from Reliance's Andhra offshore field for the Bawana plant for 2009-10 and 2010-11. But Pragati Power could not sign the GSPA on time since its power project was delayed. Now that Pragati Power has synchronised two gas-fired turbines of 250 MW each, the company approached Reliance to sign the contract. But Reliance is in no position to sign any fresh contract since output from its field has dropped to about 47 mcmd against a projection of 60 mcmd.Unless the Centre diverts gas from other domestic fields, Pragati Power would not be able to operate the two gas turbines in "open cycle" which would have made up 400 MW out of the 500 MW shortfall. Pragati Power has told the Centre that running the Bawana plant in open cycle with LNG would be "highly uneconomical".
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