Govt expedites planning and approval process of power projects

The Ministry of Power has facilitated the planning and approval process for power transmission projects in a move towards attaining the government’s energy transition target which focuses on renewable power.

The ministry has approved the National Committee on Transmission (NCT) and the Central Transmission Utility (CTU) to make the modifications.

To facilitate permission of inter-state transmission systems (ISTS) projects of expanding ISTS projects up to Rs 100 crore will now be sanctioned by CTU, and proposals worth between Rs 100 crore and Rs 500 crore will be permitted by NCT.

The power ministry will allow projects worth over Rs 500 crore.

CTU, which is part of the state-owned power transmission firm Power Grid Corporation of India, has been hived off and will be an individual firm by March-end, said officials.

So far, all projects were permitted by the power ministry after the recommendation of the NCT.

The centre has additionally decided to dissolve and change the function of the regional power committees. In the permission process of ISTS projects, two regional committees — Regional Power Committee (RPC) and Regional Power Committee (Transmission Planning), or RPC-TP —had to be consulted individually.

To avoid duplication in regional consultation and to decrease the time taken for the planning process, RPC-TP has been dissolved, and the term of reference of RPC is being changed to promote regional consultation in the ISTS planning and approval process.

In a statement, the power ministry said that for projects up to Rs 500 crore, prior consultation with RPC would not be needed.

The ministry said these measures would facilitate the increase of renewable energy (RE) projects in the nation. The ministry said that for facilitating the development of RE capacity, areas that have high solar or wind energy potential need to be connected to ISTS so that RE capacity can come up there.

The Power Ministry said that it is a national mission as a part of their energy transition aim. The revision in terms of reference of NCT would assist in timely forming the needed ISTS system for having 450 GW of RE by 2030.

The centre will shortly provide 44 new power transmission plans worth Rs 41,369 crore, with most projects under the ‘Green Energy Corridors’ (GEC) project. These plans would evacuate about 38 GW of RE from the Western and Northern parts.

Accordingly, fast-tracking the process was required to reduce the mismatch between ISTS commissioning and RE project commissioning.

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