The Rs 4,500 crore gas-based Bawana power plant in the national Capital has literally gone in vain. lying grossly unused for want of ‘gas’, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on Thursday termed the project as ‘ill-conceived’ and said that it was mulling over the idea of selling the power produced at the plant to other States and not consume it in Delhi given its high cost of production.
The 1,500 MW capacity power plant was set up to make Delhi a power surplus state on its own and the plant was scheduled to be commissioned before the Commonwealth Games, 2010. However, the power plant could never be utilised to its full capacity primarily due to unavailability of gas and inordinate delay in its completion.
According to the power regulator, distribution companies in Delhi already have a power surplus and hence, the project was ‘ill-conceived’. “Power generated from the Bawana plant should not come to Delhi. It should rather be sold to other States as it will help make the project commercially viable. Cost of transportation of gas is also extremely high,” said JP Singh, member, DERC.
While power demand in the city refused to climb below the 5500 MW mark this month, the 1,500 MW power plant is just managing to generate nearly 200 MW of electricity which also gets interrupted due to short-supply of gas. Power sector officials said increasing prices of natural gas was primarily responsible for shortage of supply to the power plant.
One module of the plant was made operational last year but since then there has been no addition to the power production till date. The second module was made operational in May this year but electricity generation would depend on the availability of gas. In another development, the DERC has decided to surrender power that Delhi draws from the NTPC owned 1500 MW Indira Gandhi Super
Thermal Power Project at Jhajjar in Haryana.