India is to spend US$10 billion per year on new power transmission lines to satisfy growing demand in under-served areas, according to the nation’s largest private power-grid operator.
India lacks sufficient transmission infrastructure to link its increasing generation capacity to areas of burgeoning consumption, Sterlite Power Transmission Ltd chief executive Pratik Agarwal said.
The central government might spend about US$6 billion annually, with the rest coming from state governments, he said.
“India should see far bigger growth of electricity consumption than it has seen for the last three to four years,” Agarwal said. “If you want to make a dent in the energy industry, it is no longer about generation, it’s about delivery.”
Demand for transmission infrastructure is being driven by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of supplying affordable, continuous power to the whole nation by 2019.
India’s peak electricity demand is expected to rise by more than 53 percent to 235 gigawatts during the six years to March 2022, according to the Indian Central Electricity Authority.
The government’s rural electrification plans would drive demand for investment across the electricity value chain, Agarwal said.
Linking millions of people in villages to the grid would require more power lines to bring electricity from different parts of the nation, he said.
“We need to spend a huge amount of money on transmission,” Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd analyst Anuj Upadhyay said. “In spite of having so much generation capacity, the flow of power is still not happening in many areas because of transmission constraints.”
Agarwal’s estimates for transmission spending outpace recent forecasts by the government. The Central Electricity Authority expects 2.6 trillion rupees (US$7.6 billion) to be spent each year in the five years to March 2022, according to a draft national electricity plan released last week.
Sterlite Power has 10 inter-state power transmission projects with a total network of 29 power transmission lines of about 6,767 circuit kilometers and seven substations. Four of these projects are operational.
The company is looking to raise about 26.5 billion rupees by listing two of its operational transmission projects through an infrastructure investment trust named India Grid Trust.
Funds would be primarily used to repay loans. The trust would also have a first right to acquire the remaining eight Sterlite projects.
The government’s increasing focus on renewable power is another factor that is driving transmission demand, Agarwal said.
The intermittent nature of renewable power would require grids to be smarter, he said.
“Grids around the world are designed for stable flow of energy.” Agarwal said. “Renewable is exactly the opposite. Most people in the world haven’t budgeted for this.”
India plans to invest 10.3 trillion rupees to add nearly 188 gigawatts of generation capacity in the five years through March 2022.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS