The ministry of power recently announced the successful completion of the synchronization of Southern power grid with the rest of the country’s grid with the commissioning of the Raichur – Sholapur 765 KV line. With this, the mission of “One Nation, One Grid, One Frequency” has been accomplished.
This grid connects four states in the south – Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Puducherry. This has now become the part of national power grid with a 228 GW installed capacity – the highest in the world. With this integration, electricity can flow seamlessly in all the connected regions across the country in line with the demand and supply.
During last summer, the states in the Southern grid faced a power deficit of roughly 5,000 MW. Hyderabad had daily power cuts for about 4 to 5 hours. With this integration, we can expect less power cuts this year.
Currently, from the new line, Andhra Pradesh is getting only 500 MW out of 1,500 MW that flows into the Southern power grid. According to official sources, the new line will be under observation for six months, only after that commercial exchange of power will be allowed.
There is one more 765 KV parallel line connection for Raichur-Sholapur line which is not yet ready. Therefore, as of now it is not possible to immediately utilize the new line. Only 800 MW of power can be transferred on it.
A similar line between Wardha and Hyderabad is still under construction and would take three more years to complete.
This summer might be a little better than the last year for us, but we may not get a complete relief from power cuts. It may take more time to get sufficient power supply to Hyderabad.
Source – The Hindu, TOI