Rs 100,000-cr power projects in 11th Plan

The Union Cabinet would shortly sanction Rs 100,000 crore (Rs 1000 billion) worth projects for the eleventh Plan period under two key reform tools in the power sector in India – the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP) and the Rajiv Gandhi Vidyut Vitran Yojna (RGVVY), said Rakesh Nath, chairperson, Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

"The Cabinet is expected to shortly clear the APDRP and RGVVY projects for the 12th plan period to improve the transmission infrastructure as part of our target to meet 78,000 Mw during the Plan period. A circular power grid connecting the northern region to the western grid with 765 KVA lines would be a major component," he said, while addressing the 60th annual general meeting(AGM) of the Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers Association (IEEMA) meeting in Mumbai, on Thursday.

The circular grid would cover Seepath, Zeoni, Bina, Gwalior, Agra, Fathepur, Sasaram, Gaya and Ranchi, connecting back to Seepath in North India.

Once the ultra mega power project (UMPP) at Krishnapatinam in Andhra Pradesh takes off, a similar infrastructure would be made to connect the UMPP to the southern grid during the start of the 12th Plan period, he said.

Started during the 10th Plan period, the schemes undertaken nationally under the APDRP include renovation and modernisation of sub-stations, transmission lines and distribution transformers, consumer meters, high voltage distribution system (HVDS) and computerised billing.

About Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) worth projects were approved under the scheme during the 10th Plan period. RGVVY is to accelerate the rural electrification.

Rakesh Nath said about Rs 51,000 crore (Rs 510 billion) projects had been identified under RGVVY and APDRP each.

The actual requirement was Rs 400,000 crore to upgrade the transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure, including for replacement of about 20 per cent of the transformers operational in the country.

He said as part of the reforms, specific standards had been prescribed for transformers. Two separate committees for supercritical equipments and Balance-of-Plant equipment were also working on to prescribe pre-qualification parameters for vendors in the power sector.

On the targeted 78,000 Mw of installed power capacity for the Plan period, he said about 52,000 Mw was being executed and about 2600 MW had been commissioned.

Apart from this, the private sector was executing about 10,000 MW. About 18-20,000 MW of these projects are expected to generate power by March 2008.