MUMBAI: A major project to bring renewable energy from Gujarat to Mumbai through an “expressway” power corridor is underway and is likely to be commissioned by the year-end, industry sources told Mumbai Mirror recently.
This corridor–which has its last leg in Maharashtra called the Mumbai Urja corridor–will bring at least 2,000MW green energy from the solar-wind parks of Kutch to Vadodara (both in Gujarat) and then route it through Dhule to Padgha in Maharashtra. The energy will then be wheeled to Kharghar before being brought to 400KV receiving station at Vikhroli.
Sterlite Power, which is setting up the long-distance transmission lines, aims to enhance the transmission capacity for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region to cater to surge in power demand. The peak electricity demand in Mumbai this summer has already touched 3,900MW and is expected to rise. The demand across MMR is close to 4,500MW.
Sterlite Power managing director Pratik Agarwal said, “Mumbai cannot produce enough power on its own and will have to bring additional power from outside. Also, the city’s electricity consumption is growing at the rate of 10-15% every year. It has almost reached a peak power demand of 4,000MW which is set to rise to 5,000MW in the near future. If Mumbai, which is the commercial capital of the country, needs to avoid grid failures and blackouts, it has to set up good transmission lines. We play a major role in strengthening the transmission corridor for the city to bring additional power–which can be green energy from Gujarat.”
He further said: “Our corridor aims to meet up to 40% of Mumbai’s electricity demand through renewable energy in future.”
The Prime Minister’s Office is now monitoring through the Pragati portal the Mumbai Urja corridor project and helping resolve key issues, besides moving the project swiftly to ensure operations commence by the end of 2023, a government official said. The project also has support from the state transmission utility, he added.
Project director Ninad Pitale said, “Around 95% of Mumbai’s power requirement is met through thermal power with only 5% coming from renewable energy sources. At the same time, a large amount of renewable power generation is coming up in Gujarat, which is why we are creating a corridor to bring green power to Mumbai, and the entire MMR.”
It is learnt that Sterlite Power recently commissioned a 335km green transmission corridor in Gujarat, which has the capacity to carry 5,000MW of renewable power from renewable energy farms in Kutch. The transmission line connects Lakadia in Kutch to a substation in Vadodara. This green power can now further flow to the 765 kV substation at Padgha and then to Kharghar-Vikhroli.
The transmission line connecting Kharghar to Vikhroli will also come up by December. A source from Adani Transmission said: “The work on the critical KhargharVikhroli transmission project, which has been awarded to Adani Transmission, is on, on a war-footing and will be completed on priority by the year-end. This line will be the final link to bring additional power to Mumbai.”
Pitale added: “The new corridor will address Mumbai’s longstanding transmission constraints and also play a pivotal role in opening doors for green power to flow into Mumbai.” Further, given the sizable share of renewable energy power, the overall power cost is also expected to go down for consumers in future.
Source: PTI
