The Ministry of Power has authorized POWERGRID Bhadla Transmission, a special-purpose vehicle of POWERGRID, a state-owned power transmission company, to set up overhead transmission lines on a modified route to evacuate 8.1 GW of power from the solar energy zone in Rajasthan under Phase-II Part B.

The approved re-routed portion of the transmission line, known as the Fatehgarh II PS-Bhadla II PS 765 kV D/C line (second), will traverse through various villages in Fatehgarh and Pokharan.

Following prior approval from the Central Electricity Authority for the overhead lines across Rajasthan’s solar energy zone, POWERGRID Bhadla Transmission sought clearance from a technical committee mandated by a Supreme Court order, addressing concerns related to the endangered Great Indian Bustard (GIB). The committee sanctioned the rerouting of around 36 km of the transmission line.

The approval is valid for 25 years and comes with specific conditions, including obtaining consent from relevant authorities, adherence to regulations, and compliance with the Electricity Act 2003 requirements.

In case some portion of the route of the overhead lines falls in the GIB area, POWERGRID Bhadla Transmission has to comply with the directions of the Supreme Court and the technical committee with regard to undergrounding of the transmission lines and/or installing bird diverters.

In 2021, POWERGRID acquired SPVs Bhadla Transmission and Sikar New Transmission to evacuate 8.1 GW of solar power.

In October this year, POWERGRID emerged as the successful bidder for the execution of the two inter-state transmission system projects – Bhadla III Transmission and Ananthapuram Kurnool Transmission from PFC Consulting, to evacuate a total of 23.5 GW of renewable energy in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.

Earlier in August, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission granted a transmission license to POWERGRID Khavda II-C Transmission for the evacuation of 4.5 GW of renewable energy at the Khavda pooling station, Gujarat, under Phase-II, Part C on a build, own, and operate basis.