PGCIL plans Rs 81,000-crore investment over eight years

PowerGrid Corporation, the country’s central transmission utility, has firmed up an investment plan of Rs 81,000 crore over the next eight years to set up transmission networks, including the evacuation of power from upcoming projects in some neighbouring countries.

The proposed investment would be funded by internal accruals, debt from Indian banks and financial institutions and also from multilateral institutions, including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, said PowerGrid’s director (projects), I S Jha.

This is in addition to the Rs 55,000 crore the company would be investing in the current five-year plan, ending 2012, to set up a national grid of 37,000 Mw. Of this 37,000 Mw, the company has completed an inter-regional transmission capacity of 20,800 Mw, while an additional 1,600 Mw would be added within a month.

New corridors

“So far, PowerGrid has installed transmission lines for central sector projects. Nine high-capacity power transmission corridors will be set up to evacuate 50,000 Mw from upcoming projects by independent power producers, or IPPs. These corridors will be completed in the next five years, in phases. The first phase will be launched in three months in Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu,” he told.Jha said the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has granted regulatory approval for the nine transmission corridors. “We have already invited request for qualification (the preliminary bid process) for some of these works,” he added.

These corridors are for evacuation of power from IPPs in Orissa (Rs 8,752 crore), Jharkhand (Rs 5,709 crore), Sikkim (Rs 1,304 crore), Madhya Pradesh (Rs 1,243 crore), Chhattisgarh (Rs 28,824 crore), the Krishnapatnam area in Andhra Pradesh (Rs 2,065 crore), the Srikakulam area in Andhra Pradesh (Rs 2,986 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 2,357 crore) and for the remaining southern region (Rs 4,821 crore).

It is also engaged in the installation of transmission lines for evacuating power from the ultra mega power projects of 4,000 Mw each at Sasan, Mundra, Krishnapatnam and Tilaiya. “As a thumb rule, an investment of Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.5 crore is required for installing a transmission line for 1 Mw,” Jha said.

Moreover, Jha said the company would work on evacuating 1,600 Mw from a proposed hydro power project in Myanmar, being set up by state-run NHPC. “This project, which is at its initial stage, entails an investment of Rs 4,000 crore. The hydro project and the subsequent transmission line is to be completed by 2018,” he added.

According to Jha, the company has taken up consultancy jobs in Dubai, Nigeria and Afghanistan. Besides, PowerGrid Corporation is providing consultancy to neighbouring Bangladesh to set up a 400 kv HVDC network. It also plans to install transmission lines from Bangladesh border . Similar opportunities are being explored in Nepal and Bhutan, which are keen to tap their hydro potential.