Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) has commissioned substation (transformation) capacity worth nearly 9,000 MVA in October 2021, the highest monthly level in recent history.
According to the latest statistics released by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), PGCIL commissioned 8,815 MVA of substation capacity. This accounted for 73 per cent of the total such commissioned by all ownership groups in the month.
PGCIL commissioned substations across all voltages – 800kV (HVDC), 765kV and 400kV. The biggest substation set up by PGCIL in October 2021 was the 765/400kV Bhadla-II pooling station in Rajasthan, related to transmission evacuation infrastructure for upcoming renewable energy capacity in the desert state. This substation was set up as an RTM (regulated tariff mechanism) project, in that it was not awarded under the tariff-based competitive bidding (TBCB) mechanism. The various substations commissioned by PGCIL in October have been tabulated.
In October 2021, state government utilities could commission substations with aggregate capacity of 3,300 MVA. Most of these were of the 220kV level. The state power transmission utility of Punjab commissioned the highest capacity of 1,100 MVA, coming from four installations.
Also read: PGCIL In Active Discussion With State Power Utilities
FY22 (April to October) performance
During the first seven months of FY22 (April to October), PGCIL commissioned a total of 28,245 MVA of substations. The performance of October 2021 (addition of 8,815 MVA) can be appreciated from the fact that this along accounted for over 30 per cent of the total addition during the first seven months of FY22.
Across all ownerships, a total of 46,038 MVA of substation capacity was commissioned in the April-October period of FY22. This fell short of the planned addition of 56,780 MVA.
While the Central government sector (circumscribed entirely by PGCIL) did well to actually surpass the planned addition in the first seven months of FY22, the overall shortfall was the result of under-performance by the state government and private sector.
State government utilities could add only 16793 MVA of substation capacity in the April-October period of FY22 against the target of 26705 MVA – implying a shortfall of 37 per cent. The private sector could achieve only 25 per cent of the planned addition – 1,000 MVA added against the planned 4,000 MVA.
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