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CMS threatens to pull out of Ennore power project

Even as the $2-billion Dabhol Power Project of US energy major Enron hangs fire, another US-based power firm, CMS Energy, has threatened to pull out of the $1.4-billion 1600-MW Ennore power plant project, citing lack of "co-operation and support".

"We have been very disappointed lately in India in the new project -- the Ennore project. We have not been getting the co-operation and support we need", chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the multinational CMS Energy, William T McCormick, told newspersons in Washington on Wednesday.

McCormick said that after being "selected by the government" to execute the project, the company had been "negotiating for several years with various government entities".

"We were promised by the central government, by the ministries and leaders that we would get central credit support - in fact, equivalent to the counterguarantee - because the state electricity board could not provide the credits for it.

"But the various authorities have not delivered on their promises in India, and I would say the project is in some jeopardy", McCormick said.

Sounding a stern warning, McCormick said, "Unless we can get the various Indian authorities to live up to their commitments, the project will not go forward".

The company already has two operating power plants in India, while the third - the one at Ennore - is under construction, he said, adding, "It is a large power plant with LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) import facility".

To a question, McCormick said the project would not be complete "for a long time because we have not started constructing it yet".

It would not become operational "under the most optimistic scenarios until about 2005 or 2006", he said.

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