Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), in a very recent order, has granted transmission licence to “SR WR Power Transmission Ltd,” a TBCB subsidiary of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) that is developing an interregional grid strengthening scheme.
The transmission licence will be valid for a period of 25 years, which is the duration of the transmission service agreement (TSA).
PGCIL won the scheme, officially known as “Interregional strengthening between SR Grid and WR Grid,” under the tariff-based competitive bidding (TBCB) mechanism, getting the better of five other contenders that had qualified for opening of initial price bids. (See tndindia.com story dated October 1, 2025.)
PGCIL formally acquired the project SPV “SR WR Power Transmission Ltd,” from bid process coordinator REC Power Development & Consultancy Ltd (RECPDCL) on October 17, 2025.
Upon its acquisition, PGCIL has now renamed the project SPV to “Powergrid Parli Bidar Transmission Ltd.”
The project, as the name suggests, entails improving the interregional transfer between the SR and WR grids. This would be achieved by a new 765kV double-circuit line between Parli New substation (Maharashtra, WR) to Bidar Pooling Station (Karnataka, SR). This line, of approximate length 240 ckm, will be equipped with 765kV, 240 MVAR SLR (switchable line reactors) on both circuits at the Bidar PS end. The project is scheduled to commission in 24 months, which works out to October 17, 2027.
Tariff adoption
Meanwhile, in a separate recent petition, approved the annual transmission charge (tariff) associated with the SR-WR project. PGCIL had won the project by quoting the winning tariff of Rs.1,047.59 million, which will remain fixed through the period envisaged under the TSA.
Bidding process
Based on initial price bids, PGCIL was L1 with a quote of Rs.1118.16 million, ahead of the five other bidders – Resonia, Enerica Infra 1 Pvt Ltd, Montecarlo Ltd, Adani Energy Solutions Ltd and Torrent Power Ltd.
Of these six bidders, only the top four proceeded to the e-reverse auction (e-rA) stage that saw 26 bidding rounds. At the end of the e-RA routine, PGCIL continued to be L1 but with a quote of Rs.1047.59 million — 6.3 per cent lower than its own initial quote. It may also be noted that only two bidders participated in the e-RA stage.
Licence pending
According to information available with tndindia.com, PGCIL has yet to receive the transmission licence for an ISTS-TBCB scheme “MEL Power Transmission Ltd” (now renamed to “Powergrid Mahan Rewa Transmission Ltd”). This scheme was acquired on June 4, 2025, making it PGCIL’s first ISTS-TBCB win of FY26. It is learnt that the transmission licence matter has been held up as one of the respondents concerned has yet to submit information sought by CERC. The matter was last heard in CERC on December 23, 2025.
Also read: CERC approves transmission charges of ERGS-I interstate-TBCB scheme
Featured photograph is for representation only