RIL To Establish 4,000 Mw Capacity

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is looking at establishing 4,000 Mw of gas-based power generation capacity at multiple locations at an investment of Rs 10,000 crore, in addition to a mega fertiliser plant at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. This step has been taken to leverage its gas from the Krishna-Godavari (K-G) basin. Around 1,000 Mw capacity will come up at Jamnagar in Gujarat, where RIL is building a 27 million tonne per annum (mtpa) refinery alongside its existing 33 mtpa refinery.

Tata Power has an installed capacity of about 2,300 Mw today. Typically, gas based plants cost about Rs 3.5 crore per Mw, though RIL is working on a cost estimate of Rs 2.5 crore by using new turbines. The capacities may vary slightly as the company still has to study the kind and number of industries that will come up at the SEZs. For firing the power plants the company is assured of 25 million cubic metres per day (mcmd) of gas for captive consumption from the K-G basin block. Power from the plants is also likely to be sold to group company Reliance Retail to light up its stores. RIL has come under attack from both the fertiliser and power industry after it set a well-head price of $4.33 per million British thermal unit for its K-G gas which leads to a landed price of about $6 in north India.