When Telangana was carved out of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh in June 2014, there was widespread that the fledgling state would experience severe power shortage. However, D. Prabhakar Rao, CMD, Transmission Corporation of Telangana Ltd (TSTRANSCO), tells T&D India how TSTRANSCO and other state power utilities, with the help of the Union government, have created a situation of power adequacy in the southern state. Rao also explains how e-procurement has helped TSTRANSCO as well as power utilities in general, to improve transparency and shorten project gestation periods.
At the time of bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, what was the situation with respect to power transmission infrastructure inherited by Telangana?
TSTRANSCO came into existence with effect from June 2, 2014, consequent to bifurcation of the Andhra Pradesh.
At the time of bifurcation, there was load shedding for four hours in cities, six hours in municipalities, and more than eight hours in Mandal headquarters and villages. Apart from this, there was industrial power holiday prevailing in the state for two days in a week. There were many apprehensions that Telangana would go into dark with severe power shortage, if the state was formed.
TSTRANSCO, TSGENCO and the two distribution companies—Telangana South Power Distribution Company Ltd and Telangana North Power Distribution Company Ltd—worked together meticulously in a coordinated manner to improve the situation. With the unstinted support from the government of Telangana and by adopting prudent management practices, all apprehensions were proved wrong. Within a period of less than six months of its formation, Telangana state attained comfortable power supply position. There have been no power cuts to any category of consumers in the state from November 20, 2014 onwards.
To meet the agriculture and other increasing demand in the state, 8848.5 MVA of transmission capacity has been augmented at EHT level increasing the capacity from 14059 MVA (12,653 mw) to 22,907.5 MVA (20616.75 MW).
After the state’s formation, 54 EHT sub-stations, 442 substations of 33/11kV and 1.47 lakh distribution transformers have been commissioned. Over 2,800 ckm of EHT lines and 33,600 ckm of distribution lines have been added. With these measures, satisfactory power supply is maintained in the state.
Telangana recently commissioned its longest 400kV Transmission line. What is the current share of 400kV transmission lines in TSTRANSCO’s asset block?
Yes, the longest 400kV transmission line from Suryapet to Shankerpally running 462 km was commissioned on May 6, 2017 in Telangana.
At present TSTRANSCO is meeting the power transmission requirements of the state with 19,210 ckm of EHT lines. Of these, 2,970 ckm are 400kV lines, which is about 15.5 per cent of total transmission lines in TSTRANSCO.
What about 765kV Lines? Are there any on the drawing board?
TSTRANSCO has not undertaken any 765kV transmission lines so far.
Telangana has grid connected solar power capacity of over 1 GW, according to information available. Tell us about the challenges that transmission grids face when it comes to induction of intermittent energy sources, such as solar.
The solar generation integrated to Grid as on July 31, 2017, is around 1962 mw. As the solar generation in Telangana is distributed throughout the state grid, variation is minimized. To avail the benefit of maximum solar energy, agricultural groups are also being staggered to ensure that maximum load is incident at the time of maximum solar. Also the variation in solar generation is being met by maintaining spinning reserve at thermal stations. There is a proposal in southern region for optimum harnessing of RE generation without endangering the grid security with mutual cooperation among southern states to minimize the balancing resources in case of variation in renewable energy generation.
Please discuss how e-tendering has helped TSTRANSCO in improving transparency and reducing gestation period of projects.
TSTRANSCO is inviting bids on e-procurement platform for the execution of works. In e-procurement, any bidder can participate and the online bids are secure. Bids are opened only by authorized officials, verified through digital signature certification. Every activity is time-stamped.
Bidders can track their bid status online and they can also see bids submitted by other bidders, only the bids are opened. Hence the procurement entity cannot discriminate against any bidder and all bids are fairly evaluated as per the tender norms.
Hence transparency in evaluation of tender is achieved through e-procurement platform. As all the documents of the bid are uploaded as per the template of the e-procurement platform, the tender evaluation time is considerably reduced.
Some states have started developing independent transmission Lines through private sector participation (under various PPP models like BOOM).Do you have plans in this direction?
At present TSTRANSCO does not have any projects based on the PPP model.
Currently, what are the parameters with respect to TSTRANSCO’s grid availability and transmission losses?
Standing up to the cause of providing consumers with uninterrupted, quality power, TSTRANSCO is maintaining its network with over 99.95 per cent availability, adopting state-of-the-art maintenance practices. Transmission losses during 2016-17 stood at 3.37 per cent.
How has been TSTRANSCO’s journey so far?
By proving wrong all the apprehensions that Telangana would go into dark with severe power shortage if the state was formed, Telangana power utilities with their assiduous efforts and government’s encouragement made the state self sufficient in power, thus making it a destination for investments.
TSTRANSCO along with the two state discoms have planned and executed the necessary power T&D network expansions in line with generation capacity addition and load growth. Plans are in place to cater to the future load growth as well.
Telangana discoms, in an endeavour to serve the electricity consumers in a better way, have taken up several new initiatives and have been constantly improving efficiency in various facets of functioning and have positioned the companies as the best managed power utilities in the country. Telangana has also opted for the UDAY scheme for strengthening of discoms.
Power utilities are poised to be role models in the country by setting benchmarks in every area of their respective operations.
