Energy panel okays new projects worth Rs 700 cr

The move is expected to rid people of power disruptions and bring in grid discipline

BESIDES, THE ETF GAVE A NOD TO A PROPOSAL TO ENHANCE THE COST OF TWO ONGOING PROJECTS BY RS 60 CRORE.

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government will spend more than Rs 700 crore on strengthening the power transmission infrastructure in order to rid people of power outages caused by overloading as well as bring about greater grid discipline in the state, officials in the know of things said.

The energy task force (ETF) headed by chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishra approved more than a dozen new transmission projects worth Rs 660 crore, apart from giving a nod to the proposal seeking to increase the cost of two existing projects by Rs 60 crore, in a meeting, here, on Monday.

“Now, the proposals passed by the ETF will be put before the Cabinet soon for final approval,” a senior energy department official said.

As much as Rs 220 crore of the 660 crore is proposed to be spent on installation of the availability-based tariff (ABT) meters at around 4,000 locations, under the Scheduling, Accounting, Metering and Settlement of Transactions in Electricity (SAMAST) project that aims to implement a robust, scalable and transparent framework of energy transactions at the intra-state as well as the inter-state level.

ABT meters that are proposed to be installed within the transmission network are said to be a regime that brings in grid discipline by moving towards planned generation and demand.

“Another important proposal that the ETF cleared is to replace 6,600 km of existing earth wire in transmission lines with optical ground wire to achieve the objective of having access to faster and more reliable communication data with regard to electricity transmission,” the official said.

The ETF also approved a proposal for setting up around half a dozen new transmission substations at different locations in the state. Among them are 220 kv substation in sector 62 in Noida, 132 kv substation in Ramnagar in Barabanki, 220 kv substation on Badaun Road in Bareilly, 132 kv substation in Budhana in Muzaffarnagar and 220 kv substation in Mawana in Meerut.

Apart from sanctioning new transmission projects the ETF gave a nod to a proposal to enhance the cost of two ongoing projects by Rs 60 crore.

“The construction of new substations will rid the concerned and neighbouring areas from frequent power disruptions due to overloading of the transmission system, even as the demand for power is set to go up in the times to come,” the official pointed out.