PGCIL to invest Rs 50,000 crore
V M Kaul, director, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL), talks about the organisation’s plans to expand its transmission network. Edited excerpts
A lot of activity is taking place in the power generation sector. How is PGCIL gearing up for the challenge to transmit power from these generation stations to distribution utilities?
We will be investing around Rs 50,000 crore for transmitting 55,000 Mw of power generated by independent power producers during the eleventh plan. This figure excludes projects which we are implementing for CPSUs, as well as strengthening programme to upgrade the existing network.
How are you going to finance these projects?
As is the norm in the power industry, we will be financing these projects in a 70:30 debt:equity ratio. The equity will come from our internal accruals. We will also be raising funds through a follow-on public offer in which we will be issuing around 10 per cent fresh equity. We are planning to come out with the issue in the first quarter of the next financial year. The debt part will be taken care of by a bonds issue and agreements with multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank with which we have already tied up for loans of US $1 billion each.
Getting land for infrastructure projects is a major issue, especially for power projects. How is PGCIL tackling this?
If getting land for power generation projects is difficult, it is far more difficult for power transmission projects because transmission projects require continuous land for hundreds of kilometres. However, compared to other transmission utilities, we are better placed because of our well-defined rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) policy. Since our R&R policy meets the standards of agencies like the World Bank, we also manage to raise finances for our projects from them.
What measures are you taking to conserve energy?
We are upgrading our network from 400 kV to 765 kV and 800 kV to ensure there is no loss of power due to congestion on the network. Apart from this, we will be jointly promoting a company called Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) along with NTPC, NHPC and REC. EESL will provide consultancy and do R&D work in the energy efficiency sector. We are also exploring ways to bring smartgrid technologies to India and implement them on our transmission network.
Many Navaratna PSUs are looking out for expansion or acquisitions abroad, is Power grid looking for opportunities abroad?
We have recently completed one project in Afghanistan which allows Afghan capital to get power from Uzbekistan in the North, also going to lay an undersea cable for transmission of power between Sri Lanka and India and also exploring the possibility of similar project with Bangladesh. But apart from South Asian countries, we are also looking for some opportunities in Philippines and gulf, which will be developed on build operate and transfer (BOT) basis.
-Makarand G
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