The Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation Limited (GETCO) will invest Rs 11,000 crore to construct 400 new substations and add 10,000 circuit km (Ckm) of transmission line by 2021-22. GETCO has chalked out a plan to construct 80 new substations and add more than 2,000 Ckm of transmission line every year with an investment of around Rs 2,200 crore per year for renovation and modernisation of its existing asset in the next five years.
“Presently, we have an extensive network of 1,770 substations and more than 58,500 Ckm of transmission line ranging from 400 kilovolt (kV) to 66 kV voltage class level through which 26,000 MW of install capacity of power is handled,” said B B Chauhan, managing director of GETCO. “In the last five years, we have constructed 500 substations and 13,500 Ckm of transmission line ranging from 66 kV to 400 kV voltage class averaging around 100 substations and over 2,500 Ckm of transmission lines every year. In financial year 2016-17, alone, we had constructed 100 new substations and added more than 3,000 Ckm of transmission line with an investment of around Rs 2,300 crore,” he said.
The capacity addition in the transmission network is planned through a system study carried out by state transmission utility (STU) under GETCO considering parameters like load growth, upcoming generation, reactive power management, voltage profile, requirements of power distribution companies and seamless integration of renewable energy.
Also, to improve operational efficiency, GETCO has shifted from time bound periodic preventive maintenance to condition monitoring, both off-line and on-line with the deployment of state-of-the-art testing equipment.
“With the requirement of time, we have started adopting state-of-the-art technology. Now, every upcoming substation of 220 kV and above voltage class has automation system and SCADA technology making it an unmanned substation,” said Chauhan, adding that presently there are five such unmanned substation of 220 kV and two substations of 400 kV. For seamless transfer of data for real time monitoring and analysis of its equipment, GETCO is laying optical fibre ground wire network in all upcoming transmission lines and also in existing transmission network of 220 kV and above voltage level.
Source: TOI
