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Power ministry taking up expansion project: Goyal

The power ministry has already exceeded this year’s transmission target and is taking up many expansion projects, Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy, said on Wednesday.

North eastern region: Goyal said that a 400 kV ring system along with 5 new 400 kV sub-stations have been planned to provide a quantum boost to inter-state transmission system in the North East region (NER), at an estimated cost of about Rs 3,500 crore. This inter-connection shall facilitate enhanced exchange of power among states within NER as well as between NER and other parts of the country.

Southern region: The minister said the inter-regional power transfer capacity to the southern region has been enhanced by 71% (2,450 MW) in the last 18 months and, at present, it is at 5,900 MW. He also informed that this step has greatly facilitated the southern region states to access power from resource rich areas. The synchronous connection of the Southern grid with the rest of the nation has led to reduction in the exchange rate of power from Rs 6-7 per unit to Rs 3-4 per unit.

West Bengal: Goyal further added that in order to strengthen the inter-state transmission system in West Bengal, new schemes comprising about 2,500 circuit km transmission lines and 4 new 765 kV & 400 kV sub-stations have been planned. These schemes include inter-connection between Northern and Southern part of West Bengal, new sub-stations near Kolkata (Rajarhat, Jeerat) & Kharagpur, an HVDC/AC station at Alipurduar and first 765 kV line in West Bengal at an estimated cost of about Rs 10,000 crore. These schemes shall go a long way in enhancing power exchange between the national grid and West Bengal as well as in importing power from new hydro projects in Bhutan.