State seeks fallback gas as firm allocation

HYDERABAD: Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday urged Union finance minister and chairman of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on natural gas Pranab Kumar Mukherjee to convert the fall-back supply of 3.22 MMSCMD to a firm allocation to enable all gas-based power units in the state to make uninterrupted production.The cost of alternative fuels like RLNG was huge and would have adverse implications, he noted in a letter addressed to Mukherjee.The chief minister said that all the nine gas-based power plants with a total generating capacity of 2770 MW contributing 55 mu per day in the state would continue to supply reliable power upon allocation of firm gas linkage.At present, these projects were not able to generate 100 per cent power due to nonsupply of 3.22 MMSCMD of fall-back quantity. On the other hand, the demand for power in the ensuing Kharif agricultural season was expected to go up in the coming months resulting in the state facing the shortage of power.Reliance had supplied the required 3.22 MMSCMD gas on fallback basis only till October last year. The stoppage of supply resulted in a loss of production of about 600 MW of power in the state.