Emphasising the constraints encountered by electricity evacuation infrastructure, Power Secretary Pankaj Agarwal on Monday urged the industry to brainstorm on avenues required to localise domestic supply chains for the transmission sector.

The Secretary invited stakeholders to deliberate whether a scheme similar to the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) or any other policy intervention is required to develop the transmission supply chains.

Global challenge

“Globally, transmission is an issue. I was reviewing the IEA report on renewables, which states that 1,650 GW of renewable energy capacity is awaiting transmission systems across the world. I want to point at supply chains. Do we need to think of having a PLI scheme or any other policy for developing a domestic supply chain? I would ask the stakeholders to share their views with us,” Agarwal said addressing the Central Electricity Authority’s (CEA) brainstorming session on the power sector scenario by 2047.

He also stressed the issue of the rising cost of transmission projects. “Another concern is the rising cost of transmission. The CAGR we have assessed for the next five years is over of 14.5 per cent. That is the trajectory the cost of the interstate transmission system is expected to follow,” he added.

Growing demand

The development assumes importance as India’s peak power demand is expected to grow at 7 per cent annually in the next five years, with demand likely to reach 446 gigawatts (GW) by 2030.

Besides, around 100 GW of transmission capacity is in the pipeline which is expected to come up in the next 2-3 years to catch up with capacity addition in renewables.

The government aims to expand the transmission network from around 4.85 lakh circuit km (ckm) currently to 6.48 lakh ckm by 2032, which will be critical in absorbing around 600 GW of non-fossil fuel power.

Need of the hour

Later, speaking to media on the sidelines, Agarwal elaborated that the stakeholder group needs to convene and examine what needs to be done. Lowering costs would also require localising the supply chain.

“I asked the participants to consider how we can localise the supply chain for transmission equipment. One reason is that global supply chains are currently under strain due to the surge in demand. This essentially shows that there are constraints in the development of transmission capacity,” he added.

The constraints could be of two kinds, Agarwal said, adding that one is Right of Way (RoW) and the other is related to equipment.