PowerGrid on hunt for foreign firm

PowerGrid Corporation is scouting overseas markets for a transmission company and is actively pursuing some opportunities. It is also planning to set up transmission lines for an upcoming power project in Indonesia.

The public sector entity is raising loans of $700 million in the current fiscal from multi-lateral lending agencies like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

A top PowerGrid official told Business Standard that the proposed transmission project in Indonesia would see the company enter into a joint venture agreement with the generation company and acquire a 26 per cent stake in the proposed entity.

"This way, we will also be able to minimise the risk," he said. PowerGrid recently bagged a Rs 479-crore project for setting up a transmission project in Afghanistan.

The official did not name the generation company. It may be recalled that another Indian public sector power entity "" NTPC Ltd "" is working on setting up a 2,000-Mw coal-based power generation plant in Indonesia. The Rs 9,000-crore investment for the project would be made by a local consortium.