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Raghuvir Srinivasan

The last eight years have seen the creation of 8,500 MW of inter-State transmission capacity, but there's way to go yet.

INTER-REGIONAL transmission is the preserve of Power Grid Corporation (PGC) which also operates the load despatch centres that regulate the flow of power between consumers and generators. The transmission sector has indeed come a long way from the nineties when none of the five grids — western, northern, southern, eastern and north-eastern — were inter-linked.

Today, all the grids are linked with each other and the north-eastern, eastern and western grids are synchronised with each other enabling seamless flow of power between them. The last eight years have seen the creation of 8,500 MW of inter-State transmission capacity by PGC.

However, there's way to go yet; PGC is working to increase the transmission capacity to 30,000 MW by 2012 along with synchronisation of all the grids. A national grid with that kind of capacity will enable dynamic wheeling of power from surplus to deficit regions and also result in optimal utilisation of generation capacity created all over the country.

To do this, the required investment is a staggering Rs 70,000 crore, of which, PGC is confident of raising Rs 50,000 crore on its own. The balance has to come from private investment. The Electricity Act permits private players into transmission but there have been no takers yet. PGC argues that transmission is a natural monopoly (see interview with Mr R. P. Singh, CMD, PGC, on Opinion Page) but it is also confronted by the truth that it cannot raise money and build a 30,000 MW network on its own.

As a solution to this dilemma, it has come up with the option of JVs with private players. The first of these, Powerlinks Transmission Ltd, a JV with Tata Power, has been formed to evacuate power from the Tala hydroelectric project in Bhutan. The project will be implemented at a cost of Rs 1,200 crore and Tata Power will hold 51 per cent equity in the company. Subsequent to this, two more JV projects have been planned for the Maithon project and for Kol Dam with NTPC.

Transmission capacity has been linked hitherto with generation but with open access norms being cleared by the Electricity Act and the regulators, a change in the mindset appears to be necessary. Spare capacity for open access customers will be available only in the short-term on generation-linked transmission lines.

Long-term open access will require creation of dedicated capacity in transmission which will be possible only where long-term agreements are put in place between the generator seeking open access and the transmission utility. With power trading catching up, such long-term agreements are bound to catch on.

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