Dabhol plant to go full steam soon

The Ratnagiri Gas & Power Pvt. Ltd.'s Dabhol plant will start generating power at full steam and Maharashtra will start getting around 2100 Mw of power by November, said RGPPL chairman and managing director Chandan Roy.

He was speaking to reporters after the meeting called by state energy minister Dileep Walse Patil to take stock of progress on various issues related to the Dabhol project.

Dabhol working at full blast will give some respite to Maharashtra, which is facing power shortage of around 5700 Mw.

One unit of 350 Mw Dabhol plant, which is under repair, will get synchronised by the end of March, and Maharashtra will start getting complete 700 Mw from the second block of Dabhol, he said.

He further said, "we expect pipeline between Uran and Dabhol will be completed by the end of May which will allow us to bring gas to Dabhol plant and once, we start getting gas, we will be able to start operating third block of 700 MW by the end of July. By mid-November we also expect to make first block operational."

Though requirement of gas for the Dabhol plant is around 2.1 million tonne, PetroNet Limited has assured of supplying 1.2 million tonne. "That will allow us to run two blocks on gas," Roy said.

However, the decision on whether to continue to run the block 2 on naphtha or go for spot buying of gas will be taken at a later stage, he clarified.