Ten TBCB power transmission projects "under bidding stage", only six likely - Your Gateway to Power Transmission & Distribution

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Ten TBCB power transmission projects “under bidding stage”, only six likely

Venugopal Pillai
July 5, 2021

According to statistics released by the power ministry, there are ten transmission projects based on the tariff-based competitive bidding (TBCB) mechanism, which are currently in the bidding stage. However, only six of these can be considered as truly upcoming.

According to information on Union power ministry’s TARANG (Transmission App for Real Time Monitoring and Growth), accessed on July 3, 2021, these ten projects collectively seek to add 1,783 ckm of new transmission lines and around 21,000 MVA of transformation capacity. Some of these projects involve power evacuation from upcoming mega solar and wind energy projects.

The ten projects, where REC Transmission Projects Company Ltd and PFC Consulting Ltd are collectively the bid process coordinators, are:

Four projects ruled out

Though the TARANG portal indicates that the project SPVs Sikar New Transmission Ltd and Fatehgarh Bhadla Transco Ltd are yet to be handed over to the successful bidder, the transfer recently took place. Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) was the successful bidder for both these projects. In fact, PGCIL has clinched all the five TBCB projects awarded in 2021, so far.

Very interestingly, TARANG mentions that two more project SPVs — Shongtong Karcham-Wangtoo Transmission Ltd and Tanda Transmission Ltd— are pending transfer to the successful bidder.

However, both these projects have been in limbo for quite some time now. According to information available with T&D India, for both these projects Essel Infraprojects Ltd has been selected as the L1 bidder. However, the award of both these projects has been pending award for quite some time now.

According to information available with T&D India, the letter of intent for the Tanda project was handed over to Essel Infraprojects way back in October 2015. However, the award is still pending as some of the committed long-term transmission customers have not signed the transmission service agreement. Tanda Transmission Ltd seeks to establish power evacuation infrastructure from the 2×660-mw expansion of NTPC’s Tanda power plant in Uttar Pradesh. NTPC, it may be mentioned, has already commissioned the expanded capacity in FY21.

The case of Shongtong Karcham-Wangtoo Transmission Ltd is similarly stuck but for different reasons. As a matter of coincidence, Essel Infrastructure is the selected developer for this project as well. The developer was selected in February 2018 but according to reliable sources, the project is likely to be scrapped. In a meeting of the National Committee on Transmission (NCT), it was deliberated that the 450-mw Shongtong-Karcham hydropower project, for which the project SPV was to develop the evacuation infrastructure, was itself delayed and unlikely to commission only by 2030. The 450-mw Shongtong-Karcham project is a run-of-river scheme on River Sutlej in Himachal Pradesh.

As an alternative, it has now been decided that state power utility Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (HPPCL) will develop a dedicated 400kV line from the project site (Shongtong-Karcham) to Wangtoo. The bid process coordinating agency, PFC, is in the process of formally deregistering the project SPV.

Six projects now left

Given that four out of the ten projects listed above are not in the reckoning, it leaves us with the following six projects, which can be considered as TBCB schemes coming up for award:

Overall TBCB status

As of March 31, 2021, there were 54 TBCB-based power transmission schemes that included 30 completed ones and 20 where construction work was in progress. The remaining four included one project officially scrapped and three where construction work could not begin due to some litigation.