Against the backdrop of increasing renewable energy capacity in the country, Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy Shri R.K. Singh chaired a meeting in Jaipur, Rajasthan yesterday, July 13, 2023, to review the progress of Inter-State Transmission System in the country. The Inter-State Transmission System is instrumental in meeting electricity needs of citizens, by facilitating transfer of power from power-surplus to power-deficit areas.
Referring to India’s commitment to achieve the target of having 50% of installed electricity generation capacity from non-fossil sources by the year 2030, the Power Minister emphasized that development of associated transmission infrastructure is key to achieving this. By 2030, the country’s installed power capacity is likely to grow to over 777 GW and the peak demand is slated to reach 335 GW. Given this, a comprehensive transmission plan to evacuate 537 GW of renewable energy capacity has been drawn up, considering the renewable energy potential in different parts of the country. The plan was released by the Power Minister in December 2022.
In the review of the Inter-State Transmission System, Shri Singh focused on the progress of projects under planning and bidding phases and those under implementation. The bottlenecks being faced in project execution were deliberated in detail, based on which the Minister issued directions to resolve the issues for early project completion.
Shri Singh emphasized that the transmission planning should take into consideration the emerging requirements such as Green Hydrogen production; increase in conventional generation capacity to meet growing power demand; and offshore wind generation in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. He reviewed the Inter Sate Transmission Plan for key states rich in renewable energy, namely Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
The Inter State and Intra State Transmission Plans for states in the North Eastern Region were also reviewed in detail, so as to meet the power demand of the region in 2030 while also evacuating power from upcoming hydro projects in the region.
The Minister directed that the transmission plan should be dynamic and sensitive to changing needs of the sector. He impressed upon concerned departments that development of transmission infrastructure should be ahead of generation, so that there are no constraints in evacuating power.
The meeting was attended by the Secretary, Ministry of Power; Chairperson, Central Electricity Authority; and other key officials from the Central Transmission Utility, POWERGRID, REC, PFC and Ministry of Power.
