THE TRANSFORMERS
POWER GRID CORPORATION OF INDIA LTD | ESTABLISHED IN 1989
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
In October 1989, even as the country was in political turmoil, the then V.P. Singh government decided to move on the plan to merge transmission assets of nine central sector generation companies along with the regional dispatch centres managed by watchdog Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to form the National Power Transmission Corporation Limited (NPTCL), later rechristened the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. This move led to a more synergised approach, allowing the transmission of electricity from one region to another. In 2016-17, the grid had a capacity to transfer 75,000 MW electricity. In the last fiscal, half of the 1,200 billion units generated in the country flowed through its network.
The 19th CEA electricity survey projected that electricity demand in the country would be 235 GW by 2022. The country today already has installed capacity of 330 GW with peak demand of 160 GW. This means Power Grid has the liberty today to focus more on strengthening the system than on new projects. A major task is a ‘green corridor’ to accommodate 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022.
ALL LIT UP
There is the ambitious target of ‘electricity for all’ by 2022 for which, in the next five years, transmission investments worth Rs 2.6 trillion—out of which Rs 1.6 trillion will be spent by states—have already been identified. By 2022, renewable electricity generation will also constitute roughly 40 per cent of total installed capacity with 100 GW of it solar.