New Delhi: Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd, the new owner of Dabhol power plant, will restart generation in October after a three-month gap, but the cost of power will jump to about Rs 6.25 per unit from Rs 4.25 earlier.
"The Dabhol plant will be restarted from next month. Maharashtra has said that they will require electricity from the plant," Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar.
Shinde said the 740 MW Block-II of the plant would again be operated on naphtha as natural gas supplies were expected to be firmed up only in March next year.
Power Secretary R V Shahi said that RGPPL would import naphtha for resuming generation through Indian Oil Corporation.
Running the plant on imported naphtha would increase the cost of generation to about Rs 6.0-6.25 per unit compared to Rs 4.25 per unit when the plant was operated on domestic naphtha during May-June this year, he said.
The company has already approached power regulator CERC for tariff approval, Shahi said.
RGPPL has also decided to delay the commissioning of two units - Block-I and Block-III - with a total capacity of 1,400 MW from the earlier schedule of December this year to March 2007 to match the arrival of liquefied natural gas.
The Block-II of the project generated electricity on naphtha for two months in May-June this year after a five-year gap. The Block was shut down on July 4 after demand dropped in the state with the onset of rains in the western region.
The government has also granted a customs duty waiver to both LNG and naphtha imports for the Dabhol power plant to make the two fuels cheaper by about 5 per cent.
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