Project connecting north, south grids to be ready by next year

Public sector Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) is planning to commission the transmission line that connects northern grid with the southern early next year. The project will help address the existing connectivity problem between the both.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of PGCIL follow-on public offer (FPO) road show, N Ravikumar, executive director (southern region), PGCIL, said the corporation was planning to commission the Raichur-Solapur transmission line next year. The entire southern states, including Tamil Nadu, will now benefit from the power obtained from northern states.

"We have advanced the project implementation by almost nine months considering difficult power situation in the south."

It is also planning to set up Chhatisgarh-Pugalur transmission line, which will help the state access power from other parts of the country.

He said with the commissioning of two 765 kv single circuit transmission lines connecting Raichur in Karnataka and Sholapur in Maharashtra, all the five electrical regions were in synchronous mode thereby putting the nation under a grid with same frequency.

"Out of the two lines, one circuit is being implemented by us while the other by another company under tariff-based competitive bidding," he said.

The two lines have a total capacity of 2,000-Mw. Initially, the full capacity may not be utilised. During the first five months, focus will be on to stabilise the lines, during which the southern states can draw their share of power from central utilities and other states.

Currently, all regional grids, except the southern region, are synchronously interconnected and run at one frequency. According to reports, the southern region is linked asynchronously with a different frequency with other region grids through the high-voltage, direct current transmission system.

During the peak summer in 2013, the southern region suffered with a 26 per cent power deficit, the highest in the country.

There were instances where the northern grid had surplus power but it could not be transferred to southern states, including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, since the southern region is not plugged into the national grid.