Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), over the past one week, has granted transmission licence to as many as five interstate transmission system (ISTS) schemes. For each of these schemes, CERC has also completed the tariff adoption routine.
In several petitions issued since July 5, 2023, CERC has granted transmission licence and has adopted tariff for the following five ISTS schemes, awarded under the TBCB route.
- Khavda II-A Transmission Ltd
- KPS2 Transmission Ltd
- Khavda II-C Transmission Ltd
- ERWR Power Transmission Ltd
- Dharamjaigarh Transmission Ltd
While “Khavda II-A Transmission Ltd” was awarded to Adani Transmission Ltd, the remaining four schemes listed above have Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) as the developer.
It may also be mentioned that PGCIL, upon acquisition of the project SPV, has changed the project SPV’s original name, in three cases. Accordingly, #2 listed above is known as “Powergrid KPS2 Transmission Ltd.” Similarly, “Powergrid ERWR Power Transmission Ltd” and “Powergrid Dharamjaigarh Transmission Ltd” are the new names of #4 and #5, respectively.
While T&D India has covered basic project details on each of these schemes through stories in the recent past, here are some interesting highlights on the bidding process.
Also read: CERC Grants Transmission Licence To Dharamjaigarh Transmission
- In the case of Khavda II-A Transmission Ltd, the final L1 bid of Adani Transmission Ltd, at Rs.118.940 crore, was 10.2 per cent lower than the initial L1 bid (before the e-reverse auction), which was submitted by Apraava Energy.
- Aggressive bidding was also seen in the case of KPS2 Transmission Ltd. PGCIL put the winning bid of Rs.69.681 crore that was nearly 12 per cent lower than the initial L1 bid of Rs.79 crore submitted by Adani Transmission Ltd. It is also interesting to note that in the initial bidding stage, PGCIL was L4 with a quote of Rs.102.445 crore. Thus, PGCIL revised its own bid by as much as 32 per cent.
- In each of the three projects — Khavda II-C, ERWR and Dharamjaigarh – PGCIL was L1 in the initial and the final (e-RA) stages. The aggression in downward revision of bids was therefore milder. PGCIL revised its bid downwards by 5 per cent for Khavda II-C and by 2.5 per cent for ERWR.
- In the same three projects, there was at least one bidder that did not participate in the e-RA stage. In each case, four bidders (L1 to L4) were eligible to participate. In fact, for the Dharamjaigarh project, no bidder participated in the e-RA. Hence, the initial bids were treated as the final bids.
