PFC Consulting Ltd (PFCCL) is seeking to appoint consultants for studying the techno-commercial feasibility of building a subsea cabling ecosystem in India.
PFCCL has invited request for proposal (RfP) for appointment of consultant for preparation of feasibility report and techno-commercial analysis for domestic manufacturing, safe laying and maintenance of subsea cables.
This move assumes significance as India has now embarked on power transmission infrastructure involving submarine cables — an activity not undertaken so far.
According to the PFCCL tender, the Union ministry of new & renewable energy (MNRE) has planned to develop as much as 37 GW of wind power generation capacity, including offshore Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, by 2030. Grid-integration of this upcoming capacity will need 7,400 km of array cables and export cables of around 9,250 km, the document states.
As already reported by T&D India, while the offshore wind farms will be built by private developers, the power transmission infrastructure, in the initial stages at least, will be developed by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) under the regulated tariff mechanism (RTM) route.
According to information available, a total of 10 GW of offshore wind energy evacuation has been currently envisaged – 5 GW in Gujarat and 5 GW in Tamil Nadu. The initial 2 GW (1 GW in Gujarat and 1 GW in TN) would be developed by PGCIL under the RTM route while the remaining 8 GW (4 GW in Gujarat and 4 GW in TN) would come up under the TBCB philosophy, at a later stage.
Transnational links
Apart from offshore wind energy evacuation, India is also planning subsea electricity links – both on the domestic and international front. The domestic link would involve feeding electricity to Andaman & Nicobar Islands from Paradeep in Odisha on the eastern coast. This HVDC link with a transfer capacity of 500 MW will run an estimated 1,150 km.
International submarine corridors have been planned with Sri Lanka (1,000 MW, 120 km); Singapore (2,000 MW, 3,000 km); Saudi Arabia (2,000 MW, 2,000 km); UAE (2,000 MW, 1,500 km) and Maldives (400 MW, 750 km)
Role of consultant
The incumbent consultant will offer guidance on domestic manufacturing, safe laying and maintenance of subsea cables, as per the terms of reference provided by Central Electricity Authority. Major consultancy activities envisaged include capex study (capital expenditure and details of machinery required for manufacture of subsea cables), techno-commercial analysis of different types of cables (single-core, three-core, etc), identification of suitable locations for proposed manufacturing facilities of subsea cables, availability of technical expertise and skilled manpower, etc. The consultant engagement period is four months from the date of formal appointment.
Featured photograph (source: NKT) is for representation only
