MahaGenco may put Uran plant expansion on hold

A shortage of gas is forcing the Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (MahaGenco) to put on the back burner its plans to expand the capacity of the Uran power plant by another 1,220MW.

“There is no clear assurance regarding the availability of KG basin gas. We had written to the state government and asked for directions, but no clear response has been received. Nor has there been any firm assurance regarding gas supply from the Centre,” said a senior MahaGenco official.

MahaGenco had asked the state whether it should go ahead with the selection of bidders in anticipation of gas allocation on priority to the project by the Centre. It has also corresponded with the union ministry of petroleum and natural gas for allocation of gas for the project.

Presently, MahaGenco has 672MW capacity at the Uran Gas Turbine Power Station (GTPS), which is located near the load centres in Thane, Raigad and Pune. It was proposed to expand it in two modules of 406MW and 814MW, respectively. In case the bids were awarded this month, the project was scheduled to be commissioned in September 2014 and January 2015, respectively.