About Rs 2.7 lakh crore would be required till FY22 to build the additional electricity transmission system in the country, the National Electricity Plan (NEP) on transmission published by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) said.
The money would be spent on the 1.1 lakh circuit kilometres of transmission lines and 3.8 lakh mega volt amp of sub-stations required to support new generation capacities and make the infrastructure more flexible to accommodate the evolving trends in power consumption.
The forecast was based on estimated generation capacities of about 480.4 GW and annual peak load demand of 225.7 GW by FY22-end.
The CEA has also considered the inclusion of 175 GW (60 GW wind, 100 GW solar, 9 GW biomass and 6 GW of small hydro) renewable capacity, which are intermittent and unpredictable.
In the FY12-17 period, the country had added 1.1 lakh circuit kilometre of transmission lines and 3.2 lakh mega volt amp of sub-stations.
Apart from state-owned Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL), the requirement opens up opportunity for private transmission companies such as Adani, Sterlite, Kalpataru and L&T. Electricity transmission schemes are implemented either through the tariff based competitive bidding or under regulated tariff mechanism by PGCIL. However, most of the projects are now being tendered through tariff bidding, increasing the scope of private players.
Electricity transmission network between neighbouring nations would also require strengthening as power exchanged with these countries through cross border is likely to increase to about 6,950 MW by the end of FY22 from the present levels of 2,550 MW.
The power ministry, in December, 2018, in its latest guidelines for cross border trade had removed certain restrictive riders and paved the way for such trading in the more attractive ‘day-ahead’ market. Following that, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission also issued its latest regulations which is seen to encourage neighbouring countries to buy more power from India’s spot power
markets.
Source: financialexpress
