Reliance Power seeks gas for Andhra plant, writes letter to PMO

Anil Ambani, chairman of Reliance Power, has written to the Prime Minister's office demanding gas be allocated for the Samalkot power plant in Andhra Pradesh. He also wants early convening of the empowered group of ministers or EGOM on gas allocation.

In a letter written to the Prime Minister on 10th Jan, Anil Ambani has updated the status of Samalkot Power plant and asked for allocation of 9.6 million units of gas per day for the Power plant in AP. Reliance Power has a 2400 MW gas based power plant in Samalkot, Andhra Pradesh.

Further Anil Ambani also mentioned in his letter to the PMO that the Samalkot plant is now ready for commissioning the plant. It is therefore eligible for gas allocation under the gas utilization policy decided by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM).

Anil Ambani also pointed out that the last EGoM meet happened in 2010 and requested for convening a meet soon. Sources told NDTV Profit that the EGoM meet is likely to be held in the second week of February.

According to G Chokkalingam, ED & CIO, Centrum Wealth Management, the EGoM may not be able to find a solution soon.

This comes in the back drop of a large set of problems faced by the power sector. The heads of big power companies including Anil Ambani had met the Prime Minister along with other ministers to draw attention to the sector’s woes and discuss a way out.

PMO has also started the exercise to review the performance of the power sector and a A Committee of Secretaries -- headed by Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Pulok Chatterji and secretaries from the Ministries of Power, Petroleum, Coal, Environment and Finance -- has been set up to look into the problems faced by the sector..

The EGoM headed by finance minister will have to answer two crucial questions - where will the gas for the Samalkot power plant come from, as the gas production in KGD-6 has gone haywire.

Also, with many other plants requesting for gas, the EGoM will have to decide the priority of the Samalkot plant. Moreover, it will have to look into the demands of the other sectors like city gas distribution sector.