Power problem in Gujarat after Floods

by editor2
August 9th, 2006

NEW DELHI: Floods in Gujarat have worsened the ongoing power crisis in parts of north India, including Delhi. The HVJ pipeline — which starts from gas-fields in Gujarat, like Hazira, and feeds power plants in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and north India — has stopped getting supply from its main source point, ONGC Complex at Hazira in Gujarat.

In face of a major shortage of gas supply, north India alone reported 1,000 MW loss in generation at gas plants. Delhi’s 330 MW Pragati Power Station had zero generation on Tuesday, according to the Load Despatch Centre.

The combined capacity of two gas plants here — Pragati and Gas Turbine — is 575 MW and on Tuesday the generation was down to just 70 MW.

While Delhi, and other states, had been facing gas shortage for some months and generation from these units was affected, floods in Gujarat have brought matters to a head.

Only pleasant weather came to the city’s rescue as the demand remained low and ongoing shortage on Tuesday was 550 MW — the average figure in the past few days that’s leading to long cuts across the city. But the situation could worsen if gas supply doesn’t improve soon.

“Hydel generation in Himachal is already causing a shortage of 5,000 MW in north India and Delhi is suffering too. While we were waiting for the hydro plants and the closed Badarpur unit to resume generation, now we are losing gas too,” said an official.

An NTPC spokesperson said that they had reported a 50% of generation at their gas plants like Anta, Auraiya and Dadri. “We are partially running our gas-based units on liquid fuel. But the situation would worsen on a daily basis,” said the spokesperson.

GAIL, which manages the Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur (HVJ) pipeline, says the ONGC complex at Hazira from where a whopping 33 million metric standard cubic metres daily of gas is pumped into the pipeline has got completely flooded.

So, it has stopped getting any supply from Hazira. “At Vijaipur, we are getting 18 MMSCMD of gas from Dahej, Gujarat,” said GAIL sources.

Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1874538.cms