The final lap connecting the Southern Electricity Grid to the national network will start on October 12. Currently, all regional electricity grids are inter-connected except the Southern.

The Rs 1,930-crore project is undertaken by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd and would be unveiled by Power Minister M. Veerappa Moily.

This would facilitate the creation of the All India Synchronous National Grid when all the five grids – Northern, Eastern, Western, North Eastern and Southern – are inter-connected.

“The synchronisation of all the grids would be completed by first quarter of 2014,” said a Power Ministry official.

NEW INFRASTRUCTURE

In the last phase of inter-connection, PowerGrid will construct two 765 Kilo Volt (KV) single circuit transmission lines.

The first line would be laid from Raichur to Sholapur and the second would come up from Sholapur to Pune. This would connect the Southern Grid to the Western network, finally facilitating inter-connection of the national highway.

PowerGrid will also set up 765-400 KV substations at Raichur, Sholapur and Pune.

BENEFITS

“The setting up of national highway of electricity grid would be beneficial to all regions by augmenting the inter-regional capacity of Southern region with rest of the grid,” the official said,

For instance, after the Southern Grid is connected, it would allow import of electricity from other regions to the Southern region during peak demand as well as export of surplus power from the Southern region during off-peak demand, he explained.

In addition, due to the existing and planned renewable generation capacity, the Southern region would get access to bigger market.

Moreover, it would help in preventing massive blackouts, like the ones that happened on July 30 and 31.

siddhartha.s@thehindu.co.in

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