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A committee appointed by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has suggested an overhaul in transmission planning to facilitate transfer of power on economic principles. The committee, headed by power system expert Mata Prasad, has suggested that transmission planning be aligned to meet customer aspirations as opposed to the existing system where transmission is associated with long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs).
According to the committee, transmission planning can be done on the basis of projected load of the states and anticipated generation scenario based on economic principles of merit order operation.
In case of renewable energy sources, the committee said the transmission system may be planned by the central transmission utility (CTU) based on estimated capacity additions in perspective plan and renewable purchase obligations of each state.
This is crucial as the Centre has already launched renewable energy capacity addition of 175 Gw by 2032. To promote the power market, the committee has suggested that the transmission corridor allocation be suitably made. Five per cent of each flow gate may be reserved for day-ahead collective transactions, which may be released for the contingency market in case of non-utilisation of the corridor by power exchanges. The percentage of reservation may be reviewed after one year of operation.
The committee has suggested system studies be carried out for various generation and load scenarios during peak and off-peak hours, considering renewable capacity addition and scheduling of various generating stations that don’t have any PPAs. Further, the committee has emphasised the need for the creation of a central repository of generators in the Central Electricity Authority of India (CEA), where any generation project developer proposing to set up a new generation plant must register itself. This will not only provide vital data for the transmission planning process but will alleviate problems due to uncoordinated generation additions.
This apart, the committee has made a strong case for hand-holding of states by CEA and CTU for accurate demand forecasting. It is also suggested that states procure software for short-term, medium-term and long-term demand forecasting.
According to the committee, the volume of short-term transactions has increased from 65.9 billion units (BUs) in 2009-10 to 115.23 BUs in 2015-16. Also, the average prices of electricity transacted through traders in the short term has come down from Rs 7.29 a unit in 2008-09 to Rs 4.11 in 2015-16. The price of electricity transacted through power exchanges for 2015-16 was Rs 2.72 a unit. The trend is likely to cause more participants shifting towards short-term transactions.
POWER PLANNING
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The committee, headed by power system expert Mata Prasad, has suggested transmission planning be aligned to meet customer aspirations
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Transmission planning can be done on the basis of projected load of the states and anticipated generation
- In renewable energy, the transmission system may be planned by a central transmission utility based on estimated capacity additions in perspective plan and renewable purchase obligations of each state
