Open to jt ventures in transmission: PowerGrid

Hyderabad: For efficient management of power distribution system, the Chairman and Managing Director of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd, Dr R.P. Singh, advocated bifurcation of technical and commercial operations.

Such a move, he felt, would improve the country’s distribution network and thereby facilitate collections. In this case, States would have to take lead in streamlining distribution networks.

Delivering the fourth Er. Yarlagadda Sreeramulu Endowment lecture on ‘Transmission challenges in open electricity market’, here today, Dr Singh said that PowerGrid is now open to joint venture partnerships in transmission systems, provided they are financially viable.

Financial viability

Citing the case of creating a large transmission line without power projects coming up which would lead to losses, Dr Singh said that any new transmission lines would come up depending upon the financial and commercial viability only.

Referring to the venture of Reliance Energy which is investing Rs 2,000 crore in a Western transmission line, Dr Singh said that many companies are now evincing interest in taking part in transmission network.

‘Open access is a myth’

However, he said “Open access of transmission line is a myth. It has to be financially viable and we need to collect money which would in turn be deployed into expansion of new transmission lines criss-crossing the country. PowerGrid, which currently has a national grid of about 17,000 MW, plans to expand this to about 40,000 MW by the XI Plan period.”

No grid collapse

The recent IPO of PowerGrid has been a remarkable success and reflects the confidence in the company. “Ours is the only country in the world which has not seen a grid collapse both minor and major in the last five years, while even some of the mature economies such as Germany and The Netherlands faced grid collapse even when this was a planned outage to allow movement of ship on a river system.”

Power Grid is one of the most technology intensive companies in the world and is expanding its operations with indigenously developed technology and products. This has become a benchmark for many utilities across the world, including China, who have evinced interest in learning about the network, he said.

Skill shortage

On the human resources requirement to set up a large power evacuation network in the country, Dr Singh said that most of the engineers are now being lost out to other sectors such as IT and telecom which have been paying phenomenal salaries. This meant that the sector is now faced with talent crunch and a concerted effort required to create employable talent pool.