The Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) has entered into a loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for US$ 500 million to part-fund its ‘Green Energy Corridors’.
The Green Energy Corridors would be a bipole link power transmission between the Western Region (Raigarh, Chhattisgarh) and the Southern Region (Pugalur, Tamil Nadu) to North Trichur (Kerala).
It may be recalled that public sector Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) in partnership with ADB has bagged a Rs 1360 crore contract from PGCIL for setting up the 1,600 MW ‘High Voltage Direct Current’ (HVDC) link between the western region grid from Raigarh in Chhattigarh to Puglur in Tamil Nadu in the southern region grid.
BHEL had been associated with the HVDC projects in India since its inception.
For this project, among other equipment and systems, BHEL will significantly contribute by supplying convertor transformers, shunt reactors, filter bank capacitors and instrument transformers from its Bhopal plant and Thyristor vavles from its Electronics division in Bengaluru.
These valves will be used to covert AC power generated at the IPPs at Raigarh into DC power for transmitting it over a HVDC transmission line of over 1,800 kms and then converting it back into AC at the Puglur end for inter-connecton with the southern grid, a company press release informed.
It may be recalled that Chhattisgarh is part of Central Government’s Rs 38,000 crore ‘Green Energy Corridor’ development plans across the country, officials informed.
Notably, a Rs 38,000 crore ‘Green Energy Corridor’ is being set up to ensure evacuation of Renewable Energy in the country.
PGCIL had earlier sought a Loan assistance of US$ 1,000 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) comprising of Sovereign guaranteed loan of US$ 500 million and Non-Sovereign loan of US$ 500 million.
The Loan would be utilized for funding of the following transmission projects including a project under ‘Green Energy Corridor’ projects in the next 3 to 4 years.
PGCIL has also commenced the process of developing the 765kV Wardha-Dichpally-Maheshwaram transmission line in Telangana State for enabling receipt of 1,000 MW power supply from Chhattisgarh.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh Government had also decided to sell 1,000 MW of power to the newly formed Telangana State in 2014.
Chief Minister Raman Singh and his counterpart from Telangana, K Chandrashekhar Rao had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the purpose in Raipur on November 3, 2014.
The officials of Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company Limited (CSPDCL) had stated at that time that the decision to sell electricity to Telangana was taken in view of increasing power production capacity of Chhattisgarh and after fulfilling the power supply requirement of the State.
They further said that Telangana Government will bear the transmission expenses in supplying the power to it. The CSPDCL will get trading margin money and this will add to the income of the company. This will thereby help in reducing the electricity rates in Chhattisgarh on the basis of competition, they had stated.
The officials said that the contract was signed after considering the power received from private power generating companies. They claimed that the State will not face any power shortage due to the deal signed with Telangana.
In the month of May last year, the Central Government had also notified generation linked projects in Chhattisgarh and Odisha with a view to encouraging participation of Private sector in building the Transmission capacity in India, officials stated.
It had notified 14 power transmission schemes worth Rs 33,900 crore during 2014-15 across the country.
These transmission schemes include 765 kV and 400 kV transmission system strengthening schemes in the Northern, Western, Southern, North Eastern Regions and would facilitate transfer of Power from new Hydro electric projects in Bhutan and the generation linked projects in Chhattisgarh and Odisha etc.
By the end of 12th five year plan, the power generation installed capacity of Chhattisgarh is expected to reach 22,000 Megawatt, officials informed.
According to officials, the per capita power consumption in Chhattisgarh has jumped from 300 units to 1,724 units. In the view of increasing power supply demand, the Chhattisgarh State Power Generation Company Ltd (CGPGCL) has made an investment of Rs 22,000 crore, officials informed.
Officials further informed that the number of very high-pressure sub-centers and distribution systems have also increased in the State.
They further informed that for the first time gas based very high sub center has been developed in Raipur and in the same way very high sub-centers based on hybrid technology is being used.
For ensuring continuous power supply, double transmission-distribution system has been developed in some key areas of the State.
The Chhattisgarh Government is targetting 100 per cent household electrification by financial year 2017-18.
Notably, as on March 2015, Chhattisgarh had 63.6 households with electrification rate of 84.5 per cent, officials informed.
The State Government is attaching highest priority to power sector and is committed to provide full support to all utilities for ensuring quality power supply, officials informed.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is expected to add 14,140 MW of additional power generation capacity in its thermal plants between November 2015 to March 2022, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in its perspective transmission plan report prepared for 20 years ( 2014-34).
The objective of the plan is to present broad outlines of the requirement of additional transmission system in the Indian grid during the next two decades.
The National Electricity Plan is under preparation u/S 3(4) of the Electricity Act 2003. This Plan would inter-alia give generation capacity addition for period up to 2021-22 based on integrated resource planning requirements for the country.
In the absence of the generation addition programme for 13th Plan period, an estimate was made considering the ongoing and likely capacity addition for the conventional generation projects.
Major high capacity transmission corridors have already been planned and which are under implementation would be sufficient to meet import/export of power among various regions in the year 2021-22.
This is based on the assumptions of load growth and generation capacity addition.
Initially, the High Capacity Corridors from Chhatisgarh and Odisha were planned with reduced reliability due to uncertainties in generation addition by IPPs. The generations which were associated with these high capacity corridors are coming up in phased manner and till now no major constraint is being faced.
However, with the coming up of more generations, additional transmission strengthening may be required to meet the reliability criteria. This would be taken up with firm status of new generation projects.
Source:dailypioneer
