Date:09/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/09/stories/2009010956211700.htm

Business

Oil strike hits power plants

Sujay Mehdudia

Prolonged work stoppage may lead to major power crisis

NEW DELHI: The country-wide strike by PSU oil sector officers’ association has an adverse impact on the power generation of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) plants due to shortage of gas. A number of fertilizer units have also been shut in wake of the ongoing strike.

NTPC officials said some units of the Auraiya power plant, one at Faridabad and another at Dadri, had been shut down due to unavailability of gas. NTPC has seven dual-fuel power stations (both gas and naphtha), at Anta, Auraiya, Dadri, Faridabad, Kawas, Gandhar and Kayamkulam, having an installed capacity of 3,955 MW. Officials said the company was left with only two to three days of naphtha and if the strike continued, they would run out of fuel leading to major power crisis.

As of now, the plants were on partial generation to prolong their production.

The estimated gas requirement to operate the plants at 90 per cent plant load factor is around 17.35 mscmd. NTPC has an agreement with GAIL (India) for 12.93 mscmd of gas under the administered price mechanism category for these gas stations.

Similarly, fertilizer production has also been badly impacted by the strike.

The 50,000-tonne a day capacity of 20 plants has come under severe strain and many of them are faced with temporary shutdown due to disruption in gas supply. Officials said that so far 19 gas-based urea plants had been shut down and three more could be closed anytime soon, both in private and public sectors.

Fertilizer output has been hit hard, as 20 out of 28 units were run on gas.