NEWS & UPDATES

Weekly Power Sector Round up: 20th June 2020

Coronavirus crisis: Renewable capacity addition continues to be sluggish

Wind and solar capacity addition continued to remain sluggish in the country for the month of May, with only 12MW of wind capacity and 176MW of solar capacity added as lockdown restrictions are being pulled back.

Construction activity has been permitted since April, however difficulties with the availability of labour, movement of goods and delays in inspections and approvals have ground progress to a crawl.

It is estimated that reaching normal rates of capacity addition would take another three to four months provided there are no other COVID related setbacks.


Transmission system planning to be separated from PGCIL

The Govt. has initiated the separation of the electricity transmission system planning business from Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL). This has been a long standing demand of the industry to ensure fair bidding for transmission lines.

This will allow PGCIL to diversify, perhaps into bidding for distribution licenses that may be up for grab from the central governments drive to reform the distribution business.

PGCIL has been directed to set up a Central Transmission Utility (CTU) as a 100% subsidiary with a separate accounting and board structure. This CTU will eventually be separated as a wholly govt. owned entity.