Gujarat plans ₹96,000 crore transmission infrastructure push

Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation (GETCO) will spend ₹96,000 crore over the next 8 years in building transmission infrastructure within the state to be ready for evacuating the growing renewable energy capacity in the state, according to Jai Prakash Shivahare, Managing Director, Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd, GETCO’s parent company, said on Saturday. He was speaking at the Global Wind Day event held in Delhi.

Later, speaking to businessline, Shivahare pointed out that much of the wind and solar capacities were coming up in sparsely populated areas such as Kachh and northern Gujarat, whereas the consumption centres were in places like Ahmedabad, Morbi, Rajkot and Vadodara.

• Also read: Gensol Engineering bags ₹1,340 crore BESS project from Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam

Big plans for RE

Gujarat today has 11,823 MW of wind and 14,182 MW of solar, totalling 26,005 MW. Between 2024-25 and 2030-31, the state expects to add 22,546 MW of wind and 24,694 MW of solar, which will take the total RE capacity to 73,245 MW. During these 7 years, the state also expects to add 2,458 MW of coal (in 2028-29) and 1,620 MW of hydro capacities. As such, there is a need to build adequate transmission capacity in the state.

“If you apply for connectivity, we guarantee that we will give you connectivity,” Shivahare told the gathering at Global Wind Day event.

He told businessline that GETCO has been spending around ₹4,000 crore every year on transmission infrastructure, so in the next 8 years it would only have to spend more. Noting that GETCO is a profitable and under-leveraged company, he said that the Gujarat state government is examining of raising loans for the projects.

₹3.67 per unit storage cost

Meanwhile, the state has completed two tenders for battery based energy storage—in March and June—and has got levellised costs of storage of ₹4.43 and ₹3.67 a kWhr, respectively. Each tender is for 250 MW of capacity, but the second has a greenshoe option for an equal capacity. Two companies, Indigrid and Gensol, have bagged the projects in the first tender and Gensol in the second.

GUVNL will pay ₹4.48 lakh and ₹3.73 lakh per MW per month to the companies. The input energy will be supplied by GUVNL. The companies are expected to maintain the battery storage system so that the storage loss does not exceed 15 per cent. The storage companies are to supply electricity for two hours each in the morning and evening peak periods.

At present, Gujarat is meeting the morning and evening peak demand by using gas based power plants, where the per-unit cost works out to ₹8.5 and ₹9 a kWhr. Battery-stored wind and solar works out considerably cheaper, Shivahare said. Further, since a battery can be switched on and off, “it gives us tremendous flexibility in operation.”

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