Temporary turnaround: GSECL clocks 46 percent jump in power output
The power generation arm of Gujarat government - Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited (GSECL) - seem to have temporarily cashed in on the crisis faced by private power plants owned by Adani Power and Essar Power in the state. In the last 11 months of the 2017-18 fiscal, the GSECL has clocked an impressive 46 percent increase in power generation as compared to the same period the previous year.
“This year we have already generated 20,992 million units till date. This is a 46 percent increase in a generation as compared to 14,228 million units during the same time last year,” said Pradip Dahake, Managing Director of GSECL, headquartered at Vadodara. In the last three decades, the only time power generation at the GSECL touched the low of last fiscal was in 2013-14 when only 15,850 million units of electricity was generated.
The increase in power generation comes as a whiff of fresh air for the power-generation arm of the Gujarat government, where the production of electricity in 2016-17 had fallen by 44 percent when compared to the highs it had once touched 10 years ago.
Electricity generation by private players - which account for 54 percent of the total power produced in Gujarat - have been adversely affected in the past one year. For instance, Essar Power’s 1,200 MW plant at Salaya, which runs on imported coal, operates just 12-15 days a month depending on the availability of “cheap coal”, say the company’s officials.
Due to the high cost of imported coal, both Adani Power and Tata Power have also not been able to generate power to theur full potential, and have been seeking a bail-out for their respective plants at Mundra in Kutch district.
The GSECL has a total power generation capacity of 5,600 MW which includes hydro, coal and gas-based power plants.
“There are many players (in power generation) like Adani, Tatas and Essar. Whatever, opportunities we get to generate is as per the merit order. Our units are 30 years old and so the cost of generation is little higher… They have modern machines; ours are old machines… So we are slightly below on the merit order ranking. So we get less chance to generate. That is why our generation has fallen,” Dahake said.
“This year we have already generated 20,992 million units till date. This is a 46 percent increase in a generation as compared to 14,228 million units during the same time last year,” said Pradip Dahake, Managing Director of GSECL, headquartered at Vadodara. In the last three decades, the only time power generation at the GSECL touched the low of last fiscal was in 2013-14 when only 15,850 million units of electricity was generated.
The increase in power generation comes as a whiff of fresh air for the power-generation arm of the Gujarat government, where the production of electricity in 2016-17 had fallen by 44 percent when compared to the highs it had once touched 10 years ago.
Electricity generation by private players - which account for 54 percent of the total power produced in Gujarat - have been adversely affected in the past one year. For instance, Essar Power’s 1,200 MW plant at Salaya, which runs on imported coal, operates just 12-15 days a month depending on the availability of “cheap coal”, say the company’s officials.
Due to the high cost of imported coal, both Adani Power and Tata Power have also not been able to generate power to theur full potential, and have been seeking a bail-out for their respective plants at Mundra in Kutch district.
The GSECL has a total power generation capacity of 5,600 MW which includes hydro, coal and gas-based power plants.
“There are many players (in power generation) like Adani, Tatas and Essar. Whatever, opportunities we get to generate is as per the merit order. Our units are 30 years old and so the cost of generation is little higher… They have modern machines; ours are old machines… So we are slightly below on the merit order ranking. So we get less chance to generate. That is why our generation has fallen,” Dahake said.