Agartala:After formal commissioning of a 363.3 MW gas based combine cycle power project at Palatana in South Tripura, Tripura is expected to get another 101 MW plant at Monarchak in West Tripura next month.
According to State Power department officials, Tripura has already become the second power surplus state after Sikkim in the country with the installation of 726.6 MW Palatana project and as per the MoU signed in 2002, Tripura will be purchasing total 101 MW power of Monarchak.
At present Tripura generates 87 MW power and already added 196 MW from Palatana in the state’s accounts against the total peak hour highest demand of 260 MW without any load shedding.
“Tripura is going to add another 26 MW soon in its own generation besides 101 MW in Monarchak and as a result, by the end of January 2015, the total power generation of Tripura will be 384 MW from which the state will be able to sell easily at least 200 MW everyday at present status, which is highest surplus count in the country” the officials said adding that another 75 MW will be added next year after upgradation of NEEPCO project in Rukhia.
Meanwhile, state Power Minister Manik Dey said here today that ONGC has assured supplyer gas to NEEPCO’s 101 MW Monarchak power project by first week of January next year and immediately after the supply of gas, it will start generation.
He said during the inauguration of Palatana second unit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 1, ONGC top bosses said they have been waiting for equipment to cable the underwater gas pipeline across River Gomati to Monarchak from ONGC exploration point and it is expected to be reached by mid-December.
The initial installed capacity of 500 MW, Monarchak was reduced to 280 MW in 2003-04 after ONGC reduced its gas allocation by half. Subsequently, ONGC further cut the gas allocation in 2008, forcing NEEPCO to scale down the capacity of the project to 101 MW, but if gas supply increased in future the capacity will further increase in the project.
“So far only the deal of 100 MW power with Bangladesh is at the final stage but another 100-120 MW from Tripura’s account of power will be fed to the National grid that will increase the revenue, and subsequently the power tariff in both domestic and commercial will also reduce,” Mr Dey added.
Mr Dey also stated: “During interaction with union gas and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in presence of PM Modi in Palatana, I specifically demanded not to further increase the gas price since 93 percent of the power in Tripura is being produced from natural gas.”
He maintained that the price of natural gas has increased by 26 per cent in the past 18 months. In November, gas price per cubic metre reached Rs 8297, from Rs 6569 in June last year.(UNI)
