The “Committee of Directors on Investment on Projects” of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) has approved investment of Rs.429.16 crore on two projects, one of them directly related to evacuation infrastructure envisaged for wind energy farms offshore Gujarat.
The aforementioned committee, on February 3, 2025, approved investment in the following two project elements:
Project #1: Creation of 400kV switchyard along with installation of 2x1500MVA, 765/400kV ICTs at Vataman (AIS) with 2x125MVAr (420kV) bus reactors
Investment: Rs.319.42 crore
Scheduled completion: February 19, 2026
Project #2: Additional transmission system proposed for redundant power supply to Dholera area
Investment: Rs.109.74 crore
Scheduled completion: March 1, 2026
The first project represents a small element a mega project called “Transmission system for offshore wind zone Phase-I (500 MW VGF of the coast of Gujarat for Subzone B3)” that PGCIL is implementing under the regulated tariff mechanism (RTM) mode. The second project is scheduled to commission in a timeframe that matches that of the first.
The mega RTM project mentioned above is estimated to cost Rs.6,900 crore and is scheduled for completion by March 31, 2029. It envisages evacuation infrastructure, both offshore and onshore, associated with 500 MW of wind energy farms offshore Gujarat.
The critical elements of this project include a new 2×500 MVA, 400/220kV onshore GIS pooling station at Mahuva (Gujarat) and a new 2×315 MVA, 220/66kV offshore substation called “B3 Substation-1” or “B3-OSS-1”. Connectivity will be established between Muhava, B3-OSS-1 and the Vataman substation.
The Vataman AIS substation is being developed as part of a separate ISTS-TBCB scheme by “Powergrid Vataman Transmission Ltd,” a subsidiary of PGCIL.
Background
India has planned to set up 10 GW of wind farms, including 5 GW offshore Gujarat and 5 GW offshore Tamil Nadu. While these wind farms will be developed by the private sector, the evacuation infrastructure, at least in the initial phase, has been assigned to PGCIL under the RTM route.
Accordingly, the following two schemes envisaging 500 MW of evacuation from Gujarat and 1 GW from Tamil Nadu have been allocated to PGCIL, on RTM basis. These schemes are:
- Transmission system for offshore wind zone Phase-I (500 MW VGF of the coast of Gujarat for Subzone B3)
- Transmission system for 1 GW offshore wind farm (Phase-I) in Tamil Nadu
According to deliberations at recent meetings of National Committee on Transmission (NCT), future offshore wind energy evacuation schemes may be awarded under the tariff-based competitive bidding (TBCB) mechanism, depending on how the two RTM projects discussed above shape up. More background information may be found here.
Featured photograph is for representation only
