RIL gas saves State from power crisis
Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Gas supply to power stations from the offshore reserves of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) in the K-G Basin has saved Andhra Pradesh from the kind of power crisis witnessed in several States.
The RIL gas has not only facilitated full-scale generation in existing projects like Lanco, Spectrum and GVK but also brought the new ones such as Vemagiri, Konaseema, GVK II, and Gauthami, each of 1,500 MW capacity, to full operation.
Otherwise, a crisis would have developed in meeting the demand of more than two crore power consumers in the State, as the generation from Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar, Sileru, Jurala, Sriramsagar and Singur has dropped steeply to just 5 mu against 50 mu at this time of the year in 2008.
The unrestricted demand hovering around 190 mu a day is being met without a hiccup . Thermal stations provided 68.4 mu on Sunday, while 23 mu came from Simhadri plant (Visakhapatnam) alone, and 31 mu from the Central stations like Ramagundam, Neyveli, Kaiga as State’s share.
Two other factors have also helped power utilities to ensure better supply — fall in demand following rains and non-operation of agriculture pumpsets by farmers.
APTransco can hardly generate 20 mu but yet, supply may not suffer , thanks to the RIL gas.