It is almost one year now from the time that the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd declared that the transmission line between Sholapur in Maharashtra and Raichur in Karnataka was open to ferry power, making the concept of ‘one-nation, one-grid’ a reality.
The announcement of December 31 last year was received with much relief in southern India, especially in the energy-starved Tamil Nadu, since the technical linking of the power grids of ‘Southern Region’ with ‘Rest of India’ was taken to mean that electricity could flow to the south from other states.
This has not quite happened. South, and Tamil Nadu in particular, continue to reel under acute power shortage. Tamil Nadu has brought back scheduled power cuts and banned sale of electricity produced in the state to other states.
Tamil Nadu and Kerala pay a very high price for electricity purchased on the power exchanges. For instance, on November 4, the two states paid Rs 10.83 a kWhr on an average, while ‘rest of India’ paid only Rs 2.85. Official data shows that only about 500 MW of power flows through the Sholapur-Raichur line, when the line has a capacity to carry four times as much.
The Sholapur-Raichur line was primarily designed to take power from the South to the Western region—at a time when it was thought that South would be power surplus, what with projects such as Krishnapatnam and Kudankulam, notes Dr K Balaraman, an power transmission expert, who is the Chief General Manager – System Studies with the Power Research and Development Consultants Pvt Ltd.
But South has turned out to be hugely deficit in power, while things are not so bad in the western region. Now, the Power Grid Corporation is creating the infrastructure to move power from the surplus Chhattisgarh to Maharashtra, says Mr I S Jha, Director-Operations, PGCIL.
Dr Balaraman said that once the transmission between Wardha and Aurangabad, both in Maharashtra, is completed, electricity could flow from Chhattisgarh right up to Sholapur.
The Central Electricity Authority projects ample surpluses in some states – notably Chhattisgarh – and acute deficits in the southern states (table).
Surplus (%) | Deficit (%) | |||||||
Chhatisgarh | Madhya Pradesh | Gujarat | Maharashtra | Tamil Nadu | Kerala | Karnataka | Andhra Pradesh (incl Telangana) | |
Energy | 40.9 | 5.1 | 4.1 | - 12.6 | -6.8 | -24.7 | -14.4 | -15.3 |
Peak | 15.2 | 16.4 | 15.8 | 4.9 | -11.9 | -31.7 | -24.5 | -21.4 |
* Figures are annual averages. Monthly numbers vary.
Some experts are not confident that even if power could be moved from Chhattisgarh to Maharashtra, the South would benefit from the Sholapur-Raichur line, because Mahrashtra itself might need the power.
Tamil Nadu and Kerala at the extreme South might find it waiting for the dregs as Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are also acutely short in electricity, note the experts.