Gas woes put Uran power station expansion on hold

Inadequate gas supply has put the expansion of state-owned Uran thermal power station on hold. The station which currently produces close to 672megawatts of power daily could double its capacity if authorities made gas available.

Inadequate gas supply has put the expansion of state-owned Uran thermal power station on hold. The station which currently produces close to 672megawatts of power daily could double its capacity if authorities made gas available.

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State power generation company Mahagenco says that it will need 18-20 months to erect extra capacity because it has adequate land available at the existing coastal site which is 60km from Mumbai.

“Getting other clearances will not be a problem because public hearings of project-affected people were held long ago and the people are happy with our corporate social responsibility and pollution-control measures,” said a company spokesperson.

The company had to scrap the tender for gas supply recently because the Centre has decided to not approve additional gas supply for any power company till 2015 due to shortage.

Sources in the company said that full-capacity generation from the existing plant becomes impossible because the gas companies are not able to cater to the contracted gas demand of 3.5million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd). “We hardly get 2.2 mmscmd gas so we run our plants on low capacity,” said the spokesperson.