There is a need to increase the private sector investments in the power generation and transmission sector, a senior official said on Tuesday. “We have to unleash our potential of private sector in generation and transmission, both infrastructure areas,” said Ashish Upadhyaya, special secretary, union ministry of power, while addressing the CII South Asia Power Summit here.Srikant Nagupalli, Additional Secretary in the ministry of power said that there is a need for a comprehensive transmission plan and fast-tracked construction of transmission lines.
The construction of transmission lines has been an issue in the country’s power sector for a long time now. Additionally, the share of private companies in building infrastructure for the transmission lines is very low.
During April-October, the country has set up 7,026 circuit kilometres (ckm) of transmission lines were, against the target of 11,420 ckm, according to the CEA’s executive summary for October. The government has set a target of completing 16,602 cKM of transmission lines for the current fiscal.”There is a mismatch in addition of transmission lines and RE capacity. This has been an issue for a long time now,” said Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi, former Renewable Energy secretary and director general of Electric Power Transmission Association. “RE capacity has been added by the developer but the transmission lines are not ready yet.”
The country so far has set up 479,185 cKM (circuit kilometer) of transmission network and as per the data provided by EPTA, 38% of transmission lines have been set up by the centre, 54% by the state governments, and a meagre 8.5% by private players.
Experts attribute the lower share of private sector in the transmission segment to the lesser number of projects awarded to them through Tariff Based Competitive Bidding (TBCB). Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), owns and operates the bulk of inter-state and inter-regional transmissions in the country.
In the current financial year, PGCIL has bagged 63% of the transmission projects awarded through TBCB, while the private companies’ share lagged behind at 37% with project cost amounting to Rs 12,179 crores, Chaturvedi said.
The call for growth in private investments in the generation and transmission comes at a time when the power demand in the country hit fresh record levels this year. The peak power demand in the country hit a record 239.9 GW in September.