There has been welcome news on the high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power transmission front in the past few months. Very recently, the Pugalur-Trichur HVDC line was made fully operational, enabling 2,000 mw of power transfer.
The short-term (ST) electricity market was just around 10 per cent of India’s total electricity consumption in FY21. This metric has not seen much movement since the past decade.
Over the past few weeks, some developments towards making the electrical equipment industry “greener” came to light. Despite the fact that India is augmenting its power T&D infrastructure capacity to meet the growing electricity demand, it needs to be continually conscious of the ecological implications.
Just last week, the government announced that the newly-formed Central Transmission Utility of India Ltd (CTUIL) will start operations from April 1, 2021.
Very recently, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) won three transmission projects under the tariff-based competitive bidding (TBCB) mechanism.
In a significant development, Securities & Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) very recently granted the certificate of registration to “Powergrid Infrastructure Investment Trust”, an infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) sponsored by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL)
In recent weeks, there were two significant episodes regarding privatization of power distribution—a traditionally controversial subject in India’s power sector.
Today, the private sector is the biggest owner of coal-fired power capacity with a share of 37 per cent. By December 2023, this share will drop to 32 per cent. State government entities with a projected share of 35 per cent will constitute the single-largest ownership.
On October 5, 2020, all employees of related to the electricity department of Uttar Pradesh threatened to boycott work. They were protesting against the proposed privatization of Purvanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd (PuVVNL), one of the state government-owned distribution companies in the northern state.
According to the latest information available on the government portal PRAAPTI, the total dues of state government-owned power distribution companies (discoms) as of July 31, 2020 was nearly 37 per cent higher than the comparable level in 2019.
