Forest land diversion sought

The Chhattisgarh State Power Transmission Company Ltd (CSPTCL) has sought forest land diversion of 111.456 hectares for construction of proposed 132 Kv Nagri-Indagaon Transmission Line in Gariaband district, officials informed.

The 132 Kv DCSS line of 67.674km is being proposed from 132/33 Kv Substation at Nagri in Dhamtari district  to 132/33 Kv Sub station at Indagaon in Gariaband district. This project will facilitate the tribal district of Gariyaband with improvement in voltage and reliable power supply, they informed.

Notably, the  Chhattisgarh Government under ‘Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana’ (Saubhagya Yojana) has a target to provide electricity connection to 8.38 lakh households of the state.

For this, a proposal of Rs 838 crore has been sent to  the Central Government, officials informed.

Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company Ltd (CSPDCL) is expected to procure power to the tune of 980 MW by the end of FY 2018-19, officials informed.

Chhattisgarh had met a peak demand of 3,638 MW during FY 2014-15, which is expected to grow to 5,857 MW by the year FY 2018-19 , they informed.

In addition, to meet the future demand of consumers, Chhattisgarh has also signed PPA with central generating stations which will likely increase the current allocation from central generating stations from 1191 MW on  April 1, 2015 to 2281 MW by March 2019.

Further, power supply from CPPs and IPPs is also expected to increase from 199 MW to 954 MW by March 2019.

The State has also planned to procure power from renewable sources to fulfil its RPO obligation from hydro, solar and biomass based power plants.

Chhattisgarh state transmission network is connected to the inter-state transmission system (ISTS) through 400kV/ 220kV PGCIL substations at Kumhari-Raipur, Bhatapara and Raigarh through 400kV and 200kV transmission lines having a total transformation capacity of 2,205 MVA.

It is also connected directly to the inter-state transmission system from Chhattisgarh Power Transmission Company (CSPTCL) owned 400/200 KV s/s at Khedamara, Bhilai to Koradi and Seone, both in Madhya Pradesh and Bhadravati in Maharashtra through 400 KV interstate lines.

The State also has 765/400 kV inter-state transmission lines having a transformation capacity of 21,000 MVA at substations and length of 2,574 circuit kilometres.

Notably, Chhattisgarh government is also planning to add 2640 MW of additional renewable energy capacity by financial year 2018-19, officials informed.

The State currently has total renewable energy potential of 4,500 MW which includes solar (grid connected and roof top), wind biomass and small hydro.

It has also planned to install solar powered pump sets for agriculture consumers which will benefit 16,000 consumers.

It may be recalled that there are significantly more number of villages which are to be electrified in Chhattisgarh using the off-grid (solar) mode than the grid-based (conventional power supply).