The Hindu : New Delhi News : Delhi facing power shortage again

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Friday, Aug 11, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Delhi facing power shortage again

Staff Reporter

Units closed due to no gas from Gujarat, Maharshtra

NEW DELHI: The impact of floods in Gujarat and Maharashtra was felt in the Capital on Thursday as in the absence of the gas supply from these States the gas-fired power plants had to be shut down. With the 1,500 MW Nathpa Jhakri plant, from which Delhi derives 342 MW of power, already closed due to high silt levels and several other power units closed for repairs, Delhi experienced an acute shortage of power which resulted in about four to eight hours of cuts in most colonies.

Principal Secretary (Power) Rakesh Mehta said the gas-based power plants, namely Pragati Power Station and Gas Turbine, had to be shut down as there was not enough gas to run them. "There was an advisory from Gas Authority of India Limited to the effect and so the plants had to be closed." However, Mr Mehta said GAIL had given a hint that the supplies would resume in about three to four days as the gas fields, closed due to the floods in Gujarat, are expected to become operational by then.

In the meantime, to overcome the shortage in supply, he said Delhi was overdrawing about 500 MW from the Northern Grid and was taking another 200 MW from Rajasthan. Delhi Government said during the day there was a peak demand of around 3,450 MW of which about 2,900 MW was met. Due to the shortfall of about 550 MW, Discoms resorted to rotational loadshedding all over the Capital.

What made matters worse was the fact that the total outage or shortage in production of power received by Delhi was 1,284 MW and the city's own generation was only around 700 MW. The forced outage was exceptionally high at 915 MW. This included the closure of the two units of Pragati plant of 104 MW each, one unit of Gas Turbine of 47 units and two units of 30 MW each, one 34 MW unit of STG Plant and two units of Indraprastha Plant which together generated 102 MW of power. With 342 MW of power also not coming from Nathpa Jhakri and nothing being known when this 1,500 MW run of the river plant would become operational again, it appears Delhi would continue to reel under long power cuts for at least another three to four days.

In the planned outages too, a 210 MW unit of Badarpur Thermal Power Station that had been closed down due to hydrogen coolant leakage would also take at least another week to become operational.

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