Evacuation infrastructure for new generating station: Options available in Indian context

Facing a deficit of 9% in power generation, India needs to harness all forms of generation including renewable energy (RE) which presently contributes less than 8% to total generation capacity. To increase the same, concerns of RE developers are being addressed by the government and regulatory bodies. One such concern is availability of transmission grid for evacuation of power. Transmission lines required for power evacuation from RE generators are typically not included in their network plan by the transmission utility. Considering the financial health and underperformance of these utilities, even if the required transmission lines are included in the network plan, RE developers are uncertain and unsure of the timely execution of the plan. Ministry of Power has earlier notified guidelines Government of India, Ministry of Power, 2006a. Resolution on tariff based competitive-bidding guidelines for transmission service; Government of India, Ministry of Power, 2006b. Resolution on guidelines for encouraging competition in development of transmission projects] for enabling private sector participation in transmission to enable the private developers to build the required evacuation infrastructure. This paper evaluates the options available as per the legislative and regulatory framework in India through which the evacuation infrastructure for the RE projects can be built by the transmission utility or the potential investors. The key concept of “dedicated transmission line”, which has been a keenly debated and often a misunderstood issue, is also discussed in great detail.