Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) has entered into agreements with power transmission utilities of Madhya Pradesh and Odisha to assist them in setting up their asset management systems.
In an investor conference, PGCIL CMD K. Sreekant said that PGCIL has entered into agreements with Odisha Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (OPTCL) and Madhya Pradesh Power Transmission Company Ltd (MPPTCL) to help these two utilities set up asset management centres.
These centres will be on the lines of PGCIL’s own National Transmission Asset Management Centre (NTAMC) located at Manesar in Haryana. NTAMC, in conjunction with such regional centres, is empowering PGCIL to remotely monitor its substations. Currently, almost all of the 264 EHV substations of PGCIL are part of the NTAMC architecture.
Sreekant observed that Odisha and Madhya Pradesh have shown keen interest in setting up such asset management centres that will be managed by the state utilities themselves. PGCIL will provide management and consultancy services to these two utilities.
It may be recalled that PGCIL’s NTAMC was dedicated to the nation on April 29, 2015. PGCIL, over the years, has been adding EHV substations for remote monitoring under NTAMC and the process is now almost entirely completed.
NTAMC and the various RTAMCs are manned 24×7 by experts, providing real-time and continuous monitoring of PGCIL’s assets and systems. It is learnt that PGCIL has successfully developed software tool completely in-house for centralized real time monitoring of transformers and reactors by integrating the sensors installed in the transformers and reactors for Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA). Online monitoring of transformers/reactors is aimed at detecting early stages of faults initiation and hence reducing sudden catastrophic failures of the same.
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International projects
The PGCIL CMD also noted that during Q2 of FY23 (July to September), PGCIL signed up contracts with overseas clients for consultancy services.
In Nepal, PGCIL incorporated “Butwal-Gorakpur Cross Border Transmission Ltd” – an equal joint venture with Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). This JV will work on the development of the 400kV cross border line between Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh, India) to Butwal in Nepal. PGCIL will be associated with the Indian portion of this transnational line that has a project outlay of around Rs.400 crore, Sreekant explained.
In Q2 of FY23, PGCIL also furthered its association with Africa50 – the pan-African infrastructure investment platform. The Central PSU recently signed a joint development agreement for building transmission infrastructure in Tanzania. PGCIL initiated its collaboration with Africa50 in January 2022 when it had signed an agreement for developing the “Kenya Transmission Project”. This project entails the development, financing, construction, and operation of the 400kV Lessos – Loosuk and 220kV Kisumu – Musaga transmission lines under a public-private partnership (PPP) framework.
Featured photograph (source: PGCIL) shows transmission asset monitoring underway at PGCIL’s NTAMC located at Manesar in Haryana.
