India’s transmission line addition in FY23 exceeded the target set for the year. However, there are caveats to this accomplishment.
According to a special study by T&D India based on official statistics released by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), India added 14,625 ckm of transmission lines during FY23 (April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023). This was indeed higher than the target of 14,581 ckm set for the year.
It should be borne in mind however that the FY23 target of 14,581 km is a substantially downwardly revised version of the original metric of 21,098 km.
In September 2022, based on a mid-term review, CEA revised the original target of 21,098 km by 15.3 percent to 17,863 km. In December 2022, this new target was further revised to 14,581 ckm – another reduction of 18.4 percent. The final target was thus around 31 percent lower than the original.
The revision was done to make the target realistic. Only projects that were under construction and likely to commission during FY23 were factored in building the new target.
Though the achievement in FY23 exceeded the target, it was 1.8 percent lower than the actual addition in FY22 when 14,895 ckm of new lines were commissioned. Incidentally, the FY22 target stood at 19,255 ckm — resulting in a target achievement of 77 percent in that year.
Also read: Transmission Line Addition Surpasses Target In FY23
Private sector boost
Private sector entities – thanks to ISTS schemes under the TBCB route – put up an impressive performance in FY23. This ownership group added 3,883 ckm of transmission lines during the year, which is considered to be the highest annual achievement in recent years. This addition was more than twice the revised target of 1,885 ckm for FY23. In fact, private sector entities achieved much more than even the original FY23 target of 2,444 km. Most of the addition of transmission lines by private sector entities in FY23, at 1,373 km, came from 765kV lines.
Central government agencies (mainly accounted for by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd) added 3,926 ckm, nearly meeting the revised target of 4,035 km. State government utilities could achieve less than 80 percent of the new target – 6,816 ckm added as against 8,661 ckm targeted. Incidentally, the original FY23 target for state utilities stood at a staggering 14,066 ckm which was softened by over 38 percent to 8,661 km.
There was no addition of HVDC lines in both FY22 and FY23
By voltage class
One striking observation about transmission line addition in FY23 was the preponderance of 220kV lines. Such lines accounted for a significant 63 percent of the total transmission line addition in FY23. In physical terms, the achievement was 9,198 ckm, which was also 56 percent higher than the corresponding 5,894 ckm in FY22. Experts feel that this achievement of 220kV lines represented the clearance of the huge backlog of transmission infrastructure projects of state utilities. On the other hand, the 765kV addition, at 1,655 km, was 66 percent lower than the 4,933 ckm added in FY22. PGCIL could add only 282 ckm of 765kV lines in FY23 as several of its ISTS projects – mainly in Rajasthan – were stymied by the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) imbroglio, which incidentally, now appears resolved. Incidentally, no HVDC lines were commissioned in both FY22 and FY23.
