Connectivity To Southern States Holds Promise For Power Sector

On the first day of 2014, public sector transmission major Power Grid has synchronised the southern states with the National Grid by commissioning the Raichur-Solapur 765 KV single circuit transmission line. This Rs 815 crore cost facility has a length of 208 circuit kilometres, with 2 substations of 765/400 KV and has been commissioned 5 months ahead of schedule. This is surely a big boost to the fortunes of Indian power companies (generation and transmission).

In our analysis of the core sectors in DSIJ’s December 2013 issue, we had indicated towards this major development which would prove to be a game changer for the power sector as a whole. This development has made the Indian grid the largest synchronous grid in the world, with an installed generation capacity of 232 GW.

Generation companies with excess capacity in Maharashtra, MP and other states in northern and eastern India will now have seamless connectivity with the power-starved states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and their surplus capacity can be efficiently utilised. Many western and northern states have higher capacity in terms of power generation, but due to inadequate grid capacity in southern states (mainly Tamil Nadu and Karnataka), power could not be supplied to them so far.

During 2009-10, power scarcity developed in the southern region due to delay in some power plants (mainly Ultra Mega Power Plants). As they did not have enough grid capacity and were thus not even able to purchase power from other states, an acute imbalance between demand and supply of power developed there, resulting in prolonged power cuts. In a recent interview with DSIJ, R N Nayak, CMD, Power Grid Corp shared, “South India was slated to become self sufficient in power on account of various projects coming there, but as these projects got delayed, the situation worsened there”.

It is important to note that Power Grid’s new line is one of the two lines being constructed for better connectivity to the southern states. The other line of 765 KVA is under construction by a private company and will be completed within a few months. This development in the power sector will certainly help to improve the plant load factor (PLF) of power generation companies, which stood at 64% in H1FY14, down from 70% in H1FY13. “These two lines, which were earlier planned to take power from the south to the western region, will now be used otherwise, and power from Maharashtra can now be supplied to southern part. This will also augment our business revenue going forward”, Nayak added.

The main beneficiary of these lines would be Tata Power, Adani Power, NTPC and Torrent Power. Presently, the Indian grid network comprises 5 regional grids, viz. the Northern, Eastern, Western and North-Eastern regions and the Southern grid. The other four grids already had connectivity to the synchronous grid, while the Southern states were linked by a low capacity HVDC line. With the new 765 KVA line, the southern states are also well connected with the rest of the network.