Better gas supply by 2012: CEA

Despite the severe gas crisis faced by power generation plants in the country due to unavailability of gas, the Central Electricity Authority believes that the situation will improve by 2012.

An assessment by the authority found that 191 million metric standard cubic metre per day (mmscmd) of gas will be available by 2012.

The authority (CEA) believes most of the gas will come from Reliance's Krishna Godavri gas field, Petronet's terminal at Dahej, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Iran and Turkmenistan.

"Gas-based power generation plants will be planned only when gas becomes affordable and available," Member, Thermal CEA RK Jain told Business Standard.

Of the total power generation capacity of 1,25,000 Mw in the country, gas-based power plants have an installed capacity of 12,600 Mw, with many operating at reduced capacity. India has a demand of around 120 mmscmd of natural gas while its supply is around 66 mmscmd.

The share of natural gas in India's energy basket is only around 8.9 per cent, as compared to the world average of around 24 per cent.

The National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC), the largest producer of power from gas fuelled plants needs an additional four mmscmd of liquefied natural gas to tide over the present gas shortage for its power plants. NTPC gets 10.5 mmscmd of gas at present.

The company has seven power generation plants fuelled by gas or liquid fuel with a commissioned capacity of 3,955 Mw. The commissioned gas plants through joint ventures have a capacity of 314 Mw.