GMR to shift its power plant to Kakinada

Bangalore: GMR Infrastructure Ltd has informed BSE that GMR Energy Ltd, the company’s 100 per cent subsidiary company, having a 220-MW power plant at Mangalore, has deferred its plan of relocating the barge-mounted power plant to Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.

Now it proposed to operate the plant off the Mangalore coast, the existing location, on merchant basis, and accordingly the plant has started generation. At present, it is supplying 200 MW of power to Rajasthan State Electricity Board and is negotiating with various others, including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

The company is also mulling shifting of the plant to Turkey and its International Business Division is exploring the opportunities and studying the procedures for supply of power there.

Bid for Karnataka

GMR Energy bid for supply of power to Karnataka from the plant following the Karnataka Government’s interest to buy power from various sources to overcome the severe shortage it was facing. A company official said the government had indicated it would finalise the bid in the next two days as it wanted the supply to start from November 16.

He declined to give the tariff at which the power would be supplied to Karnataka. Also, the company has not decided about the quantum of supply to be given to either Karnataka or Rajasthan after the bid was finalised.

No gas

GMR, after the end of the seven-year Power Purchasing Agreement with Karnataka in 2007, had planned to move this naphtha-fuelled project to near Kakinada and planned to convert this to a gas-fired project. “This plan had to be shelved as gas was not available from the K-G Basin for this project,” a senior official of GMR Energy said.