Adani Energy Solutions Ltd (AESL) is in the process of securing transmission licence for an ISTS-TBCB project that it is implementing through its wholly-owned subsidiary “Halvad Transmission Ltd.”
In a very recent order, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) said that Halvad Transmission Ltd is eligible for transmission licence and that the company should file a public notice to invite comments/suggestions regarding the licence. Such comments/suggestions should be placed before CERC by May 13, 2024, following which the matter will come up for next hearing on May 22, 2024.
Halvad Transmission Ltd is implementing an interstate transmission system (ISTS) scheme that it won under the tariff-based competitive bidding (TBCB) route. The scheme is officially termed as ““Transmission system for evacuation of additional 7 GW of RE power from Khavda RE Park under Phase III Part A.”
AESL would be investing around Rs.3,000 crore to build, own, operate and maintain the 301 km (656 ckm) transmission project for a period of 35 years. The project includes setting up of 765kV Halvad switching station with 2×330 MVAr bus reactors and LILO of the 765kV double-circuit Lakadia – Ahmedabad line at Halvad.
Bidding process
AESL was contending for this project alongside two other bidders – Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) and Sterlite Power. It is learnt that during the initial bidding stage (before the e-reverse auction or e-RA), PGCIL was L1 with a quote of Rs.3,438.72 million, followed by AESL (L2: Rs.3,954.61 million) and Sterlite Power (L3: Rs.4,319.90 million). The quote represents levelized annual transmission charges.
After several rounds of the e-RA, AESL emerged the winner quoting Rs.2,710.54 million, followed by PGCIL with Rs.2,717.34 million – just 0.25 per cent higher than the AESL’s winning quote. Sterlite Power did not participate in the e-RA. Thus, it can be seen that AESL downwardly revised its own initial quote by as much as 31.5 per cent to clinch the project.
Vataman Transmission
The overall project ““Transmission system for evacuation of additional 7 GW of RE power from Khavda RE Park under Phase III” is being developed in two stages – Part A and Part B. While Adani Energy Solutions is developing Part A through Halvad Transmission Ltd, the developer for Part B is PGCIL with “Vataman Transmission Ltd” as the project SPV. Incidentally, CERC granted transmission licence for the Vataman project on April 13, 2024. Besides, PGCIL has since changed the name of the project SPV to “Powergrid Vataman Transmission Ltd,” effective March 22, 2024.
Also read: Adani Energy Solutions: Operational Transmission Portfolio Crosses 20,000 Ckm
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