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2 August 2006 - Power production at India's Ratnagiri Gas & Power plant, formerly Dabhol Power, stopped in early, the Indian federal power minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, told India's upper house of Parliament.
The troubled 740 MW power plant built for Enron in the western Indian state of Maharashtra has shut down its three turbines again after running for nine weeks.
The Dabhol plant, which has accrued bad debts of $1.4bn, was restarted April 30 using naphtha as fuel, after being idle since May 2001. Enron collapsed late that year, leaving creditors to fight over its assets.
"The short supply of naphtha for this plant is attributable to its high cost," said Shinde. "The cost of power generated by this plant is presently unacceptable to Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution," the state power company.
Reviving the utility is crucial for the industrial state of Maharashtra, home to the biggest maker of trucks in the country, Tata Motors. With electricity demand rising, India's peak power deficit, or the gap between supply and demand during evening hours, was 12.5 per cent in the 10 months through February, according to the Ministry of Power's Web site.
While the federal government has exempted naphtha imports from customs taxes, supply constraints have hurt production at the plant. Ratnagiri had no usable naphtha stock as of July 1.
The Maharashtra power utility bought electricity from the plant at 4.25 rupees, or $91a KWh, Shinde said.
Work on restarting Dabhol Power began last year after lenders to the project, including State Bank of India, took over the plant and renamed it Ratnagiri Gas & Power. GAIL (India), National Thermal Power and State Bank each hold 28 percent of Ratnagiri Gas & Power.
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