Central Electricity Authority (CEA), under the Union power ministry, has announced a revision of targets for power transmission capacity addition for FY23.
The targets for capacity addition in FY23 have been downwardly revised for both transmission lines and substations.
In an official report, CEA said the revisions were carried out based on the deliberations in a meeting chaired by Chief Engineer (PSPM Division) of CEA, on September 21, 2022. This was followed by a discussion in the Union power ministry.
The transmission line capacity addition target for FY23 has been revised from the original 21,098 ckm to 17,863 ckm – a downward revision of 15.3 per cent.
In the case of substations, the revision has been to the tune of 12 per cent from 95,659 MVA to 84,169 MVA.
It is understood that the revision in target was the outcome of a mid-term review of the performance in FY23. At the aforementioned meeting, it was decided that only those projects that are most likely to be commissioned in FY23 will be considered in the target.
It is further understood that most of the slippage taking place is on account of projects of state government utilities and the private sector. The performance of the Central public sector – comprising mainly of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) – has by and large been in tune with the targets.
As can be seen from the table alongside, there has been no revision insofar as Central government utilities are concerned. With respect to state government entities, the downward revision in target has been 19 per cent for transmission lines, and 18.2 per cent for transformation (substation) capacity. In the case of private sector, the revision has been the most – 22.9 per cent for transmission lines and 28.6 per cent for substations.
Performance in H1 of FY23
The overall addition of transmission lines in the first half (April to September) of FY23, across all ownership groups, stood at 6,661 ckm. This was only 55 per cent of the target set for the period. The maximum shortfall was seen in the case of state government utilities.
With respect to substation capacity, the overall addition in the first half of FY23 was 34,012 MVA as against the target of 64,724 MVA , implying achievement of just 53 per cent.
Given the downward revision of the annual FY23 targets, it is likely that the shortfall in target achievement would reduce by the end of the year. With six months of the year elapsed, the country has reached 40 per cent of the target with respect to substation capacity addition. The comparable metric for transmission lines is 37 per cent.
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Note:
- CEA targets for transmission infrastructure upgrade relate to only transmission lines and substations of 220kV or higher.
- The “PSPM” Division of CEA referred to in this story stands for Power System Project Monitoring.
