core sector communique

National Power Grid

At present the national power grid in the country consists of transmission grids of respective State Transmission Utilities (STUs) and Inter State Transmission System (ISTS) grid. From the operational point of view the ISTS grid is divided into five Regional Grids i.e. Northern Region (NR), Western Region (WR), Southern Region (SR), Eastern Region (ER) and North Eastern Region( NER) Grids. These Regional Grids have been inter-connected to form a National Power Grid. The National Power Grid is being developed in a phased manner. By now, all the Regional Grids have already been inter-connected. Four Regional Grids of the National Grid viz. NR, WR, ER and NER grids have been interconnected synchronously and the SR grid is connected asynchronously with the rest of the National Power Grid. The total transmission capacity of the inter-regional transmission links at the end of the 11th Plan as on 31.3.2012 was 27,750 MW. The North Eastern Regional (NER) Grid, comprising of North Eastern States is already a part of the National Grid and is synchronously inter-connected with the Northern, Eastern and Western Grids as per details given below : (i) NER Grid was synchronously interconnected with Eastern Region (ER) Grid in 1992. (ii) NER Grid was synchronously interconnected with Western Region Grid (WR) in 2003. (iii) NER Grid was synchronously interconnected with Northern Region (NR) Grid in 2006. (iv) Presently, the NER Grid is connected with the ER Grid through two transmission lines (i) Birpara – Salakati 220 kV D/c line and (ii) Malda – Bongaigaon 400 kV D/c line. The inclusion of North Eastern Regional Grid in the National Grid has enabled all the States of North Eastern Region to export power to other regions during surplus power conditions and import power from other regions during deficit power conditions. This information was given by the Minister of State for Power Shri K.C.Venugopal in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.