India Must Augment Existing Power Transmission Corridors To Meet 4x Demand By 2050

Industry champions believe that lack of evacuation infrastructure, compounded by right-of-way hurdles, presents a significant challenge and needs an urgent remedy.

“Existing power corridors can be far extended beyond their capacities as we are facing immense right-of-way issues,” said Kushal Desai, chairman and managing director of Apar Industries Ltd., the world's largest aluminium conductor producer.

According to Desai, India's ambition of setting up 500-GW renewable energy capacity by 2030 is hindered by outdated transmission lines, with tens of thousands of kilometres of lines using a 57-year-old technology.

“As the renewable energy policy document highlighted the need for transmission line upgrades, we can look at reconducting the existing lines with new technology that can double the carrying capacity instead of going for greenfield corridors alone,” he said.

Reconducting the existing lines can save time by reducing the completion to less than a year compared with 2-3 years taken by a greenfield project and that too at a substantially lower cost, added Desai.

Rupesh Sankhe, vice president and power analyst at Elara Securities India Pvt., said that while setting up a new transmission line can cost anywhere between Rs 7 and 8 crore per circuit kilometre, upgrading an existing transmission line would cost Rs 1.5 crore per circuit kilometre.

“To upgrade India's around 5 lakh circuit km of transmission lines, it would cost around Rs 7–8 lakh crore,” Sankhe added.

Upgrading existing transmission corridors with advanced conductors, cables, and optical ground wires will allow more power to be evacuated from the same geographical footprint in dense or difficult RoW areas and provide reliable connectivity, Prateek Agarwal, managing director of Sterlite Power Ltd., said.

Grid enhancement through smart grid systems, dynamic line rating, and AI-powered analytics will become vital for handling renewable energy fluctuations and maximising grid stability, Agarwal said.

Strengthening energy security by localising production of sophisticated transmission and distribution equipment will reduce dependency on global supply chains, he added.

Lost monetisation from the existing transmission lines can be captured in the capex equation, which would result in a payback period of under five years for lines with a 30- to 50-year lifespan, Desai said.

According to experts, India’s current incentives for power infrastructure development are significantly lower than those offered by China. Also, India has very few free trade agreements compared with other developing countries.

Incentives in India are at 2–4% compared to China’s 8%. This disparity highlights the competitive disadvantage India faces in attracting investments for power transmission projects. Moreover, India has very few FTAs compared to countries like Mexico that have 145. “This limited number of FTAs could hinder India’s ability to efficiently import the necessary technology and equipment for upgrading its power transmission infrastructure."

India’s power sector is poised for significant growth, but this growth will only be sustainable if the country can effectively upgrade its power transmission corridors. With the right incentives, strategic FTAs, and a focus on enhancing domestic capabilities, India can meet its future energy demands and continue to lead in power transmission technology.