Power scenario to brighten in N India

Power shortage in northern India is set to decline in a couple of weeks, with the Power Grid Corporation of India giving the finishing touches to the 1,200-km line linking the western, eastern and the north eastern regions with the northern region.

This will help in evacuation of around 2,000 Mw of surplus power from the eastern and the north eastern regions to the power deficient northern region grid, which will improve the situation in the long run.

"These four regions will be inter-linked by the third week of this month. The north eastern region and the eastern region have surplus power of around 600 Mw each and this will ease the power situation in the northern region. The northern region has a deficit of around 8,000 Mw and with this line, 1,200 Mw may be immediately met," a Power Grid official told Business Standard.

An investment of Rs 2,500 crore has been made for constructing this transmission line.

The line to link the northern region starts from Tala (Bhutan) and connects Mandola (near Delhi) through Siliguri (West Bengal), Purnea (Bihar), Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) and Bareli (Uttar Pradesh).

There are five regional grids in the country "" northern, southern, eastern, north eastern and western, out of which the western, eastern and north eastern grids are already in synchronous operations.

"Once the northern grid gets interconnected with the rest in synchronous operations, the 2,000 Mw power that can be evacuated will comprise around 20 per cent of the present capacity evacuation of 9,500 Mw," the official added.

Work on the link started in 2003 and the biggest challenge was the right of way and putting in place thyristor controlled series capacitors, which were supplied by Siemens.