India Considers Costly Gas Power as Summer Back-Up

India is dusting off its idle gas-fired power plants, not because they’re suddenly cheap, but because peak demand in the blistering months of May and June may leave the grid gasping. An adviser to the power ministry said this week the government is weighing a plan to run the costly plants only as seasonal back-up. Gas has become the ugly duckling of India’s power mix. Once good for 3% of generation in 2020, its share has shriveled to about 1.5% thanks to prices bouncing between $8 and $18 per million British thermal units. Coal—far…