GE T&D India lands GIS substations order in West Bengal

GE T&D India Ltd has announced that it received a grid upgradation order from West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Company (WBSETCL).

The order worth approximately Rs.90 crore that GE won through a competitive bidding process, includes construction of three new 132/33kV substations using GE’s advanced Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) technology in Ramnagar, Manbazaar and Birlapur. It also includes an extension of three existing substations at Hurand, Sirakole and Indus by adding two bays each.

“We are proud to continue our 30-year partnership with WBSETCL by providing them with our latest grid technologies to help them meet their growing energy needs in a more efficient way. With over 50% of India’s power managed on GE’s grid technologies, we are helping to meet the needs of the country’s electricity consumers including in West Bengal. The new substations will help the state achieve its objective to provide reliable power for all households 24×7,” said Sunil Wadhwa, Managing Director of GE T&D India Ltd.

With over 11 GW of generation capacity, West Bengal is working towards improving the availability, reliability and quality of power supply, whilst minimizing transmission and distribution losses. The projects aim at contributing to the state government’s ambition to provide 24×7 supply to all electricity consumers and provide electricity access to all unconnected households of the state. Once completed, the substations will strengthen the intra-regional connectivity and ensure better electricity access to people living near these areas, thereby enabling the state to meet the growing demand for electricity, a release from GE T&D India noted.

GE’s GIS technology is one of the most advanced substation technologies in the world and reduces the land requirement to build a substation by up to 70 per cent compared with air insulated substations. It will offer several benefits for West Bengal’s grid, including smarter networks, condition-based maintenance and greater load control to prevent outages. The equipment required to construct the substations, including the GIS, shall be locally manufactured and supplied from GE T&D India’s state-of-the-art factories in Padappai, Hosur and Pallavaram.

GE T&D India has a strong footprint in West Bengal and with the latest contract awarded, the company is executing projects worth over Rs.250 crore to upgrade the state’s grid infrastructure. Some of the key ongoing projects include GIS at Burdwan and Salt Lake. GE has already completed projects worth approximately Rs.750 crore over the last few years in partnership with the state’s transmission and distribution utilities like WBSETCL, Damodar Valley Corporation, and CESC, the release added.

Featured photograph, showing a GIS installation by GE in India, is for illustration only.