Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), in a stock exchange communication, announced that it has started commercial operations of a transmission scheme in Rajasthan, awarded under the TBCB route, on October 4, 2021.
Officially known as “”Transmission system associated with LTA applications from Rajasthan SEZ Part-C,” the transmission project was developed by PGCIL through its wholly-owned subsidiary “Powergrid Khetri Transmission System Ltd” under the BOOM (build, own, operate, maintain) route.
The scheme consists mainly of the following elements:
- 765/400kV, 2×1500 MVA substation at Khetri with 765kV (2 x 240 MVAR) and 400KV (1×125 MVAR) bus reactors
- 765kV D/C Khetri-Jhatikara line [146 km] along with associated bays at both end and 1×240 MVAR switchable line reactor with bay for each circuit at Jhatikara end
- 400kV D/C Khetri-Sikar line [78.1 km] along with associated bays at both ends
According to information available with T&D India, both the transmission lines discussed above were contracted on Transrail Lighting Ltd.
The project, with an estimated outlay of Rs.1,365 crore, was awarded to PGCIL in September 2019 (SPV acquisition date) and was originally scheduled to commission by December 2020.
REC Transmission Projects Company Ltd (now known as REC Power Development & Consultancy Ltd) was the bid process coordinating (BPC) agency and had awarded the project to PGCIL that quoted the winning tariff of Rs.122.042 crore (levelized, annual).
Also read: Construction Work On 765kV Fatehgarh-Bhadla Line Complete
Project rationale
The transmission scheme will help evacuate electricity from upcoming solar energy zones in Rajasthan. An overall transmission system for evacuation from 8.9 GW of solar power projects from Bhadla (3.55 GW), Fatehgarh (3.5 GW) and Bikaner (1.85 GW) complexes in Rajasthan was technically agreed in a meeting of Northern Region Standing Committee on Transmission (NRSCT) in November 2018.
This particular scheme, developed by Powergrid Khetri Transmission System Ltd, will be responsible for evacuation of 6.05 GW of solar energy potential, out of the total 8.9 GW.
Featured photograph for representation only
