The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : ‘Make power transmission viable’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 30, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

‘Make power transmission viable’

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Chairman and Managing Director of the Power Grid Corporation of India R. P. Singh has advocated the bifurcation of technological and commercial aspects of power distribution.

He has urged States to develop high-quality electricity distribution networks without which transmission and commercial losses are bound to multiply.

Dr. Singh has indicated the Power Grid is open to JVs with private companies, provided the laying of transmission lines proves to be commercially viable.

He delivered the Yarlagadda Sriramulu fourth endowment lecture on ‘Transmission challenges in open electricity market,’ organised by the Institutions of Engineers India (IEI), here on Saturday.

He made a strong pitch for long-term power purchase agreements between power generators and end-users (State-level transmission companies) to make T&D profitable and also sustainable.

‘Not a free commodity’

“Electricity cannot be treated as a free commodity. There should be a free flow of money,” he observed. Quality and reliability issues of power supply should be of paramount importance rather than affordability. “It is technology first and economics, next,” asserted Dr. Singh.

Describing open access system as a myth, he said people would think that the Power Grid, the Centre or the States would set up transmission lines. Power Grid never failed despite huge demand-supply gaps in India, while it was a regular phenomenon in developed countries.

He attributed the credit to the creation of meshed transmission lines by having loops within loops. The corporation proposed to enhance its capacity from the present 17,000 MW to 40,000 MW by the end of 11th Plan period and 1.50 lakh MW by 2030.

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