NEW DELHI, Mar 17: Power Ministry’s plans to have a single transmission network in the country by connecting southern grid with the National grid, is likely to be delayed by six months and may now be done only by July 2014.
This linkage would help in supplying electricity from power surplus to deficient states and may ease power outages (failure).
According to sources, power sector planning body Central Electricity Authority (CEA), which is monitoring the progress of grid synchronisation in one of the its initial reports, has said that the southern grid would be connected to the National Grid by July, 2014.
The government had earlier set a deadline of connecting it by January, 2014.
However, no reasons for the delay could be ascertained.
According to Power Grid Corporation (PGCIL), central transmission utility, the transmission link between Raichur in Karnataka and Sholapur in Maharashtra will connect the southern grid with rest of the national grid. This link is currently under construction.
The national grid is presently demarcated into five regional grids — Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western and North-eastern.
Except the southern grid, all other grids are operating in synchronism since August 2006 and have a single frequency.
All the grids are being run by the state-owned Power Grid Corporation, which operates more than 95,000 circuit km of transmission lines.
The southern grid is presently linked with the national grid through asynchronous high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line and has a different frequency.
The country had faced its worst ever power crisis in the last week of July last year, when three grids — Northern, Eastern and North-Eastern — had failed due to host of reasons, including overdrawal of electricity by some states. (PTI)
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