Exclusive | Rains delayed, NTPC to run gas-based plants at full capacity

gas based power plant

State-controlled NTPC Limited will have to run its 5,000-megawatt (MW) gas-based power plants at full capacity till June 30 at least to meet the country's spiralling electricity demand as the Met Office forecasts a delay in arrival of monsoon this year, senior officials at the power ministry told Moneycontrol on June 6.

On March 1, Moneycontrol was the first to report about the power ministry's mandate to NTPC for operating and generating all its gas-based power plants to full capacity till May 25 to meet the country's summer demand. The order for mandatory operation of such plants was issued because gas-based power stations in India either remain temporarily shut or are underutilised owing to unavailability and  high cost of gas. While issuing the order, the government had made a special arrangement with GAIL India for supplying gas to these power plants.

"The order to run NTPC's gas-based power plants was valid till May 25. Now, based on latest forecasts, Grid India has recommended running these plants for at least another month as the summer demand is unlikely to abate much due to delayed monsoons. So, we are going to send a fresh order of extension to run these plants till June 30 to Union minister for power RK Singh for his approval," said a senior power ministry official requesting anonymity.

A second official in the ministry, who requested not to be named, said gas-based power plants have played a crucial role this summer to meet India's power demand in the evening/night hours.

"In the evening, solar power to the tune of 40,000 MW just gets wiped out from the grid. And the demand in night hours is no less. It hovers around 150-200 gigawatts (GW). So, gas-based power plants have helped in meeting India's demand during the non-solar hours. Other measures such as coal blending and mandatory running of imported coal-based plants have also helped in the non-solar hours," the official said.

On June 5, for example, India met a peak power demand of 213.98 GW, which was recorded during solar-hours (day time). But, on the same day, the non-solar (night time) peak power demand also remained as high as 207.4 GW.

Apart from 5,000 MW of electricity from NTPC's gas-based stations, another 1,000 MW of gas-based power is also being supplied by NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd (NVVN).

India has about 25 GW of gas-based power capacity but almost 14 GW are not operational. Many gas-based power units have been idle or operate at low capacity due to their inability to secure fuel.

In the summer of 2022, a shortage of coal, coupled with high power demand due to scorching temperatures, led to a power crisis in the country. In December, the government asked state-run GAIL (India) and NTPC to increase imports of natural gas to supplement power generation.