GREEN ENERGY CORRIDOR PHASE-II GETS CABINET NOD

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Thursday approved a scheme on Green Energy Corridor (GEC) Phase-II for Intra-State Transmission System (InSTS) which will help in achieving the target of 450 GW installed renewal energy capacity by 2030. It will lead to addition of approximately 10,750 circuit kilometres (ckm) of transmission lines and about 27,500 Mega Volt-Amperes (MVA) transformation capacity of substations, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur told the media after a meeting of the Union Cabinet. An official release said the scheme will facilitate grid integration and power evacuation of about 20 GW of Renewable Energy (RE) power projects in seven states—Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

The scheme is targeted to be set up with a total estimated cost of Rs. 12,031.33 crore and Central Financial Assistance (CFA) @ 33% of the project cost i.e. Rs. 3,970.34 crore.

The transmission systems will be created over a period of five years from 2021-22 to 2025-26. The Central Financial Assistance (CFA) will help in offsetting the intra-state transmission charges and in keeping the power costs down. “The scheme will help in achieving the target of 450 GW installed RE capacity by 2030,” the release said. It said the scheme will also contribute to long-term energy security of the country and promote ecologically sustainable growth by reducing carbon footprint and generate large direct and indirect employment opportunities for both skilled and unskilled personnel in power and other related sectors.

This scheme is in addition to GEC-Phase-I, which is already under implementation in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu for grid integration and power evacuation of about 24 GW of renewal energy power and is expected to be completed by 2022.