Govt fast-tracks planning, approval process for power transmission projects

Also decides to dissolve and modify working of regional power committees

The Ministry of Power has fast-tracked the planning and approval process for power transmission projects, in a step towards achieving the government’s energy transition goal which focusses on renewable power.

The ministry has empowered the National Committee on Transmission (NCT) and the Central Transmission Utility (CTU) to make the changes.

To expedite approval of inter-state transmission systems (ISTS), proposals of expansion of ISTS projects up to Rs 100 crore will now be approved by CTU and proposals costing between Rs 100 crore and Rs 500 crore will be approved by NCT. The power ministry will approve the proposals costing more than Rs 500 crore.

CTU, which is part of the state-owned power transmission company Power Grid Corporation of India, has been hived off and will be a separate company by March-end, said officials.

So far, all proposals were approved by the power ministry after recommendation of the NCT.

The Centre has also decided to dissolve and modify the function of the regional power committees. In the approval process of ISTS projects, two regional committees — Regional Power Committee (RPC) and Regional Power Committee (Transmission Planning), or RPC-TP —had to be consulted separately. This, the ministry says, delays the process.

“In order to avoid duplication in regional consultation and to reduce the time taken for the planning process, RPC-TP has been dissolved and the term of reference of RPC is being modified to facilitate regional consultation in ISTS planning and approval process. For proposals up to Rs 500 crore, prior consultation with RPC would not be required,” the power ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said these steps will facilitate the growth of renewable energy (RE) projects in the country. The ministry said for enabling growth of RE capacity, areas which have high solar/wind energy potential need to be connected to ISTS, so that RE capacity can come up there.

“This is a national mission as a part of our energy transition goal. The revision in terms of reference of NCT will help in timely developing the required ISTS system for having 450 Gw of RE by 2030,” ministry said.

The Centre will soon offer 44 new power transmission projects worth Rs 41,369 crore with most projects under the ‘Green Energy Corridors’ (GEC) plan, this paper reported recently. These projects would evacuate close to 38 Gw of RE from the Western and Northern parts. Such a large scale of transmission projects under the bidding mode has been offered after a hiatus of at least three years.

Unlike conventional electricity generation, which has a long gestation period, RE generation needs close to 18 months of time for commissioning, while the transmission system needs 18-24 months for commissioning.

Accordingly, the need for fast-tracking the process was felt so as to minimise the mismatch between ISTS commissioning and RE project commissioning, the ministry said.