Chennai: Anticipating a power shortage of 11,000 MW by the end of 12th five year plan in Southern region (SR), Central Electricity Authority proposes to lay two high voltage direct current (HVDC) lines from Gujarat and Chhattisgarh with 6,000 MW capacity each to overcome power deficit faced by Southern states.
According to CEA estimate, total projected demand for SR comprising Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala at the end of 2016-17 would be 57,221 MW while the total availability would stand at 48,188 MW which includes generation by newly added power projects of 15,760 MW.
“The SR would be deficit of power due to high load growth and the fact that some of the planned generation projects, like Krishnapatnam Ultra Mega Power Project, Ind Barath, Yermarus, Edlapur, Kalpakkam, Udangudi and Cheyyur UMPP, among others are getting delayed. It was assessed that the SR would have deficit of 7000 to 11,000 MW of power by 2016-17,” said CEA sources.
A senior official of Power Grid Corporation of India said that to overcome the power crisis in the SR, many inter and intra regional transmission projects are to be undertaken. “We are planning to construct two lines from Gujarat and Chhattisgarh to SR to import the surplus power from there,” the official said.
A 800 Kv HVDC line would be laid between Raigarh in Chhattisgarh and Pugalur in Tamil Nadu with a capacity of 6,000 MW.
TANGEDCO along with Maharashtra State Mining Corporation proposes to set up a 4,000 MW pit head power station in a coal block jointly allocated to them in Chhattisgarh. The state would get 2500 mw as its share.
PGCIL official said that Gujarat could have around 6,000 MW of surplus power in the future.
“The surplus power from Gujarat can be imported to southern region to meet the deficit. Hence we are planning a 800 kv HVDC link from Gujarat to a suitable landing point in SR,” the official said, adding that total cost of the project be around Rs 12,000 crore.
A TNEB official said that execution of these transmission lines would ease grid congestion and enable power import from surplus regions in times of need.
