The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : AP Transco to buy naphtha

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Friday, Oct 26, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

AP Transco to buy naphtha

M. Malleswara Rao

To meet possible power shortage

HYDERABAD: AP Transco will shortly purchase naphtha, a petroleum distillate, at a high price of Rs.43,000 a tonne, to operate four private power stations to meet possible power shortage during the rabi season.

A unit cost of power generated from naphtha will work out Rs.7.80 a unit as against 50-75 paise for hydel, Rs.1.50-2 for gas and Rs.2-3 in the case of coal.

The cost to serve in all these cases will be higher as Transco has to bear an additional burden on account of transmission and distribution losses and maintenance while supplying to the consumer. So, the final price of power from a naphtha-operated plant will be around Rs.10 a unit.

State to bear burden

This burden may not be shifted to the consumer as the Government has set aside Rs.2,800 crore this year to meet such exigencies.

Power shortage during the rabi season, that will begin in a fortnight, has been assessed at 20-30 million units (mu) a day. The actual demand even with existing restrictions on supply is likely to touch 200 mu a day going by the extensive use of pumpsets by farmers to take advantage of improved groundwater levels.

It is to bridge this gap that Transco plans to use naphtha to generate 600 MW from Lanco, GVK I, Spectrum and Reliance Energy Limited (RIL) plants. These three are combined cycle projects capable of running on naphtha as alternative fuel.

Gas supply to be diverted

The small gas quota these plants are getting from the ONGC will be diverted to GVK II and Gauthami projects as they have refused to take the risk of using costly fuel naphtha in case of gas shortage. A 100-MW plant capacity needs 400 tonnes of naphtha a day.

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