High voltage lines for South

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.