18 power plants to get Rs 1.7K cr subsidy to buy imported gas

After two days of reverse e-auction, 18 power plants including that of NTPC and Torrent Power have emerged as successful bidders to receive subsidy of about Rs 1,787.47 crore to buy imported gas, a move that will help revive a cumulative generation capacity of 11,717.72 MW.
"The two separate auctions held yesterday (for fully stranded gas based plants) and today (for partly stranded gas based plants) have resulted in revival of a cumulative gas based generation capacity of 11,717.72 MW resulting in generation of additional 12.47 billion units of electricity during the period from October 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016," a Power Ministry press releases said.

In today's auction, five partly stranded gas based power generation plants -- two of NTPC, one each of Torrent Power, Gujarat Industries Power Co and CLP India Private Ltd -- with a total installed capacity of 3,455.64 MW have emerged as success bidders, it said.
These five power plants will get government support of Rs 278.38 crore from the Power System Development Fund (PSDF).The successful bidders included NTPC Ltd's Dadri and Auraiya plants.
In the auction held today, 11 plants with a cumulative installed capacity of 5,858.67 MW participated in the technical bid round and all were declared as technically qualified. Five of those were selected on the basis of financial bids.

These plants would generate 1.43 billion units of electricity which will be supplied at or below Rs 3.39 per unit to the purchaser Discoms during the period from October 1

2015 to March 31 2016.
Yesterday, 13 stranded gas-based power plants with an installed capacity of 8,262.08 MW had emerged as successful bidders for government subsidy worth Rs 1,590.09 crore for buying imported LNG to restart their plants.
These 13 plants would generate 11.03 billion units of electricity which will be supplied at or below Rs 4.70 per unit to discoms from October 1 to March 31, 2016.
The grid connected gas-based power generation capacity in the country is 24,150 MW. Of this, a capacity of 14,305 MW had no supply of domestic gas. This comprises of 29 plants that were eligible to participate in the auction held yesterday.

The successful bidders will be issued letter of award on September 17.
Under the plan, liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be imported and cash-strapped state power distribution companies will be financially supported to buy electricity from them.
Power plants rarely use costly imported LNG as electricity produced from the fuel would cost much more than that from a domestic coal-fuelled plant or a domestic gas-fired plant, and there would be no takers for such expensive power.