The connectivity between the southern grid and the power grids of other regions are adequate to meet the power transmission requirements between Tamil Nadu and other states, according to the minister for power, R. K. Singh.

Singh was replying to a question in the Upper House of the Parliament. The Southern Region (SR) is connected with the North-East-West Region (NEWR) through various inter-regional AC links at 220kV, 400kV, 765kV level, and HVDC link. With the commissioning of new transmission lines, the upstream and downstream grid connectivity of the main NEWR-SR corridor has been further strengthened, stated Singh in his written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

In March 2018, Mercom reported how the addition of 64 GW of renewable energy capacity has put the onus on the country’s Green Energy Corridors.

Replying to a question on the progress of Green Energy Corridors, Singh stated, “Green Energy Corridors have been planned to facilitate the integration of large scale renewable generation capacity in eight renewable energy resource rich states, namely: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra. It includes the strengthening of intra-state and inter-state transmission systems and the establishment of renewable energy management centers (REMCs). The inter-state transmission system and REMCs are being implemented by the POWERGRID. The project includes about 3200 circuit kilometers (ckms) of line and six substations totaling 18,000 MVA, to be completed by May 2019.”

Singh also added that part of the transmission system is already commissioned, and the balance transmission scheme is under various stages of implementation.

“The respective state transmission utilities (STUs) are implementing the intra-state transmission system (ISTS). The progress of the various schemes under GEC is regularly monitored by the government,” added Singh.

The establishment of REMCs under GEC is a central sector scheme sanctioned in 2017-18 at an estimated cost of ₹4,090 million (~$59.3674 million). An amount of ₹1 million (~$0.01452 million) and ₹100 million (~$1.45153 million) has been provisioned in the financial year 2017-18 and 2018- 19 respectively. However, no funds have been released thus far. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has sanctioned ₹101,410 million (~$1,471.99 million) for the implementation of Intra State Transmission System (ISTS) under GEC in 2015-16, of which 40 percent is in the form of a grant from MNRE.

Recently, a standing committee on energy observed that more funding is needed if India is going to install enough physical transmission infrastructure to meet its ambitious timeline to create its Green Energy Corridor.

ISTS connectivity has been a challenge already for wind projects and many developers fear solar is going to face a major challenge as multi-gigawatts of tenders are being announced .