Modi urged to consider power access application
Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa. (Photo: DC/File)
Chennai: Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on Thursday urged the PM to advise the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) to consider the long-term access application of power suppliers to Tamil Nadu while allocating transmission capacity to southern states.
Based on the advice of the ministry of power to go in for long term power purchase to meet the demand-supply gap in the state, Tangedco had signed long term power purchase agreements for 15 years, commencing from 2014, for 3,330 MW. “Of this, 2,518 MW is contracted from private power producers outside the southern region. These suppliers have applied for “Long Term Access” from November 2013 to January 2014 to the PGCIL, the designated central transmission utility,” Jayalalithaa stated in her missive to Modi.
With the commissioning of the Sholapur to Raichur inter-regional transmission lines with a capacity of 4,000 MW, flow of power from the western to the southern region has been enabled sufficiently.
However, Jayalalithaa pointed out in her letter that even though a transmission capacity of 4,000 MW had been created, PGCIL had declared a total transfer capability of only 1,100 MW and available transfer capability of 350 MW alone.
“Considering a high transmission reliability margin of 750 MW, this implies that only 350 MW can flow to the southern region now,” she said. The Chief Minister said that while the Tangedco’s applications for long term access was pending with PGCIL since November 2013, the ministry of power had allocated an additional 377 MW of surrendered power of the government of Delhi to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala over and above the present allocation of 316 MW up to March 2015.
“This will adversely affect Tamil Nadu’s availing of transmission capacity under long-term access as even temporary allocation of power from central generating stations (CGS) is considered equivalent to long term power allocation of transmission capacity,” Jayalalithaa said.
Seeking the PM’s intervention in urging PGCIL to consider long term access application of power suppliers to Tamil Nadu without taking into account the temporary allocation, Jayalalithaa also urged him to direct the ministry of power to review the transmission reliability margin so that TN gets its rightful share of access to transmission lines.
( Source : dc correspondent )
Next Story
