Power from Chhattisgarh in two years, could remain a mirage even in five years, if the Telangana government does not pull up its socks and lay its claim on the future grid corridor immediately.
The fact was made amply evident by the report of Task Force on Energy, recently submitted to the government.
As per the data, even if the oft mentioned Wardha-Dichpally line becomes a reality, it could offer little to Telangana, as there are applications for grid corridor pending with the Power Grid Corporation. According to the report, the expected further enhancement of the grid corridor up to March, 2017 is 4,000 MW, of which 1,050 MW has already been booked by the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation. Furthermore, applications for 1,795 MW from grid corridor are pending against Power Purchase Agreements already signed, the report mentioned. Thus, the balance capacity available by March 2017 would be only 1,155 MW.
The Telangana government, last month, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Chhattisgarh government, for supply of 1,000 MW of power from the latter’s generation facilities. Mr. Rao has also made a request for supply of 1,000 MW more, to which the Chhattisgarh counterpart Raman Singh responded positively.
Listing the upcoming interstate transmission projects, the report stated the scheduled completion date for the Wardha-Nizamabad-Hyderabad (known as Wardha-Dichpally) line as March, 2017, which is 28 months away from now as against the 18-month deadline set by Mr. Rao. The project is still in its pre-award stage.
The nearest completion date, in December, 2015, is set for 765 KV Kolhapur-Narendra line with carrying capacity of 600-700 MW, which is under construction. Another one under construction is the 765 KV Angul-Srikakulam-Vemagiri line, with carrying capacity of 1000-1500 MW and completion scheduled for August, 2016. After Wardha-Nizamabad-Hyderabad line, the next nearest scheduled completion date is in August, 2019, for the 800 KV Raigarh-Pugalur line.
