Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

Transmission Infrastructure for Renewable Energy Projects - Draft Sub-Group Report

1. Background
The renewable capacity addition in the country, up to the end of 9th Plan i.e. 2001-02 was just 3,475 MW. The Government of India as well as many State governments have issues policies and programmes conducive to the generation of renewable power, which has gained acceleration and in just last 9 years it has reached to 19,975 MW. Most of the this renewable capacity is in the renewable potential rich states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan. These five states contributes more than 80% of total renewable capacity installation in the country. Renewable capacity in these five states as on 31.03.2011 is given below: S. No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Total State Tamil Nadu Maharashtra Karnataka Gujarat Rajasthan Renewable capacity as on 31.03.2011 in MW 6500 3005 2882 2198 1627 16212

1.1

Grid Connectivity of Renewables

As per Section 86 (1) (e) of the Electricity Act, 2003 the State Regulatory

Commission shall:

promote co-generation and generation of electricity from renewable sources of energy

by providing suitable measures for connectivity with the grid and sale of electricity to any person, and also specify, for purchase of electricity from such sources, a percentage of the total consumption of electricity in the area of a distribution licensee;
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Draft

Renewable

Purchase

Obligation,

its

compliance

and

REC

framework implementation Regulations were issued by CERC, which most of the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions have adopted, provides priority in granting open access/connectivity with distribution system or grid as the case may be, by the respective transmission licensee or distribution licensee to renewable energy generator. In addition, some of the states have made specific provisions for grid connectivity: The Gujarat Wind Energy Policy provides grid connectivity to the wind power developers within the range of 100 kms of the plant. The Rajasthan Renewable Policy provides for strengthening of evacuation system beyond the receiving station of State Transmission Utility (STU)/Discoms The Maharashtra Renewable Policy provides for 50% subsidy from green energy fund for the evacuation system for wind energy projects. The CERC has amended the Grid Connectivity Regulation allowing cluster of Renewable Energy generators of aggregate capacity 50 MW or more to get direct connectivity to Central Transmission Utility (CTU) network. The CERC has also notified that there will be no transmission charges and no transmission losses shall be charged to solar based generation for the use of ISTS network. This shall be applicable for the useful life of the projects commissioned in next three years i.e. up to 2014.

2.

Existing Power Evacuation Mechanism

The present renewable power evacuation mechanism involves

construction of pooling sub-station of 33kV or 66 kV or 132 kV level as the case may be by the renewable power producer(s), if required and connecting the pooling station to the receiving station of STU/Discom at appropriate
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voltage level. The construction/ augmentation of receiving station and strengthening of evacuation system beyond the receiving station is being done by the respective STU/Discoms. This has involved construction of dedicated Extra High Voltage (EHV) transmission system of voltage level up to 400 kV in the renewable rich states of Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Maharashtra etc. At present the renewable power produced is being consumed in the home state and generally there in no involvement of Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) for evacuation of renewable energy. However, Tamil Nadu is using part of ISTS in the State for evacuation of its large capacity wind power.

3.

Transmission Infrastructure Issues

In line with the Electricity Act, 2003, and policies framed for promotion

of renewable energy generation as also the Dynamic Renewable Purchase Standards suggested in National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions have issued Renewable Purchase Obligations for the distribution licensees, Captive Power Plants and Open access Consumers. To achieve the NAPCC targets of 12% by the end of 12th Five Year Plan, it has been estimated that the renewable capacity requirement would be about 55,000 MW. Meaning thereby addition of 6,000 MW capacity every year. Creating of power evacuation infrastructure for renewable is going to be a challenging issue as described below: a. Remote Location of Renewable Energy Potential: The Renewable Energy (RE) potential is location bound and in most of the cases such potential exist in the remote area e.g. wind potential is mostly available along the coastal line, off shore and part of Thar Desert in Rajasthan and excellent solar potential with abundant land is available in Thar Desert of Rajasthan and kutchh area of Gujarat and similar situation exist for small hydro power which is available in remote hilly terrains of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh etc.

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b. Inter-State Transmission of Renewable Power: Large sized capacity additions are expected from the remote potential areas and this Renewable power is required to be transmitted to the load centres. The home States would not be able to consume this much volume of high cost power within the State and the power has to be transmitted to other States. c. Intermittency of Renewable Energy: Renewable energy is also characterised by the problem of intermittency. The power generated from these sources fluctuates from moment to moment as the wind varies or clouds pass in front of the sun. Fluctuating supply from renewable energy sources creates a complexity in the Grid, which required to be addressed, one of the option is pooling of geographically disperse intermittent sources so that average power at pooling station do not have more fluctuations. Integrating different renewable sources like solar and wind, which produces peak energy during different times of the day will reduce supply fluctuation and leads to better utilisation of Transmission system. d. High Cost of Transmission Infrastructure: Utilisation of renewable power requires a robust transmission system from remotely located renewable power generating plants to the load centres. Further combining geographically disperse RE sources to reduce intermittency require much larger and upgraded transmission network. In some cases the evacuation of large capacity renewable power e.g. wind power in Tamil Nadu, will require inter-state transmission system of 765 kV (the highest transmission voltage in the country). Construction of such type of transmission infrastructure to evacuate power from the RE generating plants requires deployment of huge funds. e. Advance Planning and Implementation: For an RE generation project coming at a particular location, the transmission network have to be built in advance so that electricity can reach to supplier/consumer when the project is ready to generate electricity. A typical transmission line takes four to five years to be planned and built, while a renewable power plant can be constructed in much
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lesser time. Therefore, advance planning of transmission network is crucial for timely achievement of RE targets as wind and solar developers are hesitant to build a power plant without certainty that a transmission line will be built. Judicious planning of transmission system i.e. creating pooling substation for cluster of RE generators and connecting them with receiving station of STU/CTU at appropriate voltage will lead to optimal utilisation of transmission system. f. Increased Cost of Renewable Energy: At present the cost of renewable energy at higher level in comparison to the conventional energy. Due to intermittent nature it also requires spinning reserves, which further increases the cost of supply from the renewable energy sources. Construction of matching Extra High Voltage Transmission System to evacuate renewable power as stipulated above will further add to the cost of power from renewable source. This increase in the cost is detrimental to achieve the capacity addition targets of the renewable energy. Further, the state electricity utilities, which are already running in to losses, with their limited financial resources, are finding it difficult to undertake RE power evacuation infrastructure at their own. In view of above, for the successful achievement of renewable energy generation targets it is necessary that: a. Transmission infrastructure for evacuation of power from renewable to be planned judiciously by respective STU/CTU well in advance. b. Funds/Grants to be provided for creation of the transmission infrastructure. c. Timely completion of transmission infrastructure projects.

4.

Assessment of funds required

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy(MNRE) has received

proposals from the renewable rich States of Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Himachal
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Pradesh and Gujarat for providing financial support to create power evacuation infrastructure for renewable in the State. The proposal details are given below:
S. No. State RE capacity estimated to be evacuated in MW 4000 Cost of Proposed Evacuation System in Rs. Crs. 1757 Major Proposed Evacuation System

1.

Tamil Nadu

400 kV GSSs along with associated 400 kV Lines and other EHV transmission and subtransmission network. 400 kV GSSs along with associated 400 kV Lines and other EHV transmission and subtransmission network. 220 kV GSS along with associated 220 kV Lines and other EHV transmission and subtransmission network. 400 kV GSSs along with associated 400 kV Lines and other EHV transmission and subtransmission network.

2.

Rajasthan

4000

2350

3.

Himachal Pradesh

1200

657

4.

Gujarat

5500

1680

Out of these four proposals, the proposal of Rajasthan amounting to Rs. 2349.11 Crs. to evacuate 4000 MW renewable power from the potentially rich area of the State, after getting examined from CEA and POWERGRID, has been processed for funding under NCEF. For proposals of HP and Tamil Nadu revision/clarification has been sought from the respective States. The Proposal of Gujarat is under examination by CEA/Powergrid. The proposals from other renewable potential rich States are likely to be received shortly. Based on the transmission infrastructure development proposals

received from above renewable potential rich states, it has been estimated that to achieve the NAPCC targets of Renewable Purchase Standards of 12% energy from renewable sources by the end of 12th Plan i.e. 2016-17, an amount of Rs. 17,500 Crs. would be required to create power evacuation transmission infrastructure for renewable energy projects in the country. Since transmission
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infrastructure is required to be developed in advance of the renewable energy projects the phasing of funds required for this purpose would be :
Year Funds Reuired for Transmission Infrastructure Development (Rs. in Crs.) 2012-13 1,750 2013-14 7,000 2014-15 5,250 2015-16 1,750 2016-17 875 Total 17,500

5.

Financing Mechanism and Suggestive Measures

The Government of India has constituted 'National Clean Energy Fund'

(NCEF) by imposing cess on coal. As per the guidelines issued by Ministry of Finance the projects relating to creation of power evacuation infrastructure for renewable is eligible for funding under NCEF. Other suggestive financing measures are: In addition to the NCEF, Special budget provision shall be made by the Central and State Governments for creation of power evacuation infrastructure for renewable energy projects. Financing evacuation projects from Green Energy Fund (as being done in Maharastra)

Part of the fund created by imposing penalty on obligated entities

for non achievement of RPO obligations shall also be utilised for this purpose.

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