Seven entities have submitted their financial bids for building the Rs.1,300-crore Vemagiri transmission system (Package A) in Andhra Pradesh. Nodal agency Rural Electrification Corporation is expected to finalise the developer by mid-March 2012, a senior REC official told Electrical Monitor over phone.

REC Transmission Projects Company Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd, is acting as the bid process coordinator for selecting the transmission service provider to establish and run the 765kV transmission system, under the BOOM model. For the Vemagiri Package A project, the transmission service provider (TSP) will be a shell company called Vemagiri Transmission System Ltd, whose ownership will be transferred to the selected developer.

Those in the fray include Power Grid Corporation of India, Larsen & Toubro, Sterlite Grid, IVRCL Infrastructures, NCC Infrastructure Holding, a consortium of Ind-Bharat Power Infra and Megha Engineering, and a consortium of KEC International and Spanish company Elecnor.

No cap on bidders

There is no proposal to impose a cap on the number of private transmission projects that a single developer wins, the REC official said. He was replying to a question on whether nodal agencies like PFC and REC were considering imposing a ceiling on the number of projects, on lines of the ultra mega power project series. It may be mentioned that the power ministry has decided to restrict the number of UMPPs that a single developer can win to three. So far, four UMPPs have been awarded out of which three have gone to Reliance Power (Anil Ambani Group). The REC official said that there was no need to impose such caps on power transmission projects, as they are much smaller in terms of investment and complexity than power generation projects. A typical transmission project would cost Rs.750 crore whereas an UMPP would need an investment of not less than Rs.20,000 crore, the official said.

The proposed Vemagiri transmission system aims at creating power evacuation infrastructure associated with a series of gas-fired power plants coming up in the area. The project (referred to as "Vemagiri Area - Package A") involves setting up of one 765kV line from the Vemagiri pooling station to Khammam, and another 765kV line from Khammam to Hyderabad. The lines will be initially charged at 400kV.

Currently, four independent power producer (IPP) projects aggregating 5,400 mw of capacity are coming up in the Vemagiri area, all to be fed through gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin. Long term agreements for gas supply have already been entered for 5,100 mw of capacity. The Vemagiri (Package A) project will facilitate the transfer of power to the southern region.

The senior official elaborated that REC will also be the nodal agency for two more associated packages (B and C) that will be developed using the same tariff-based bidding route. Package B, identical to Package A, will involve setting up of the second 765kV line from the Vemagiri pooling station to Khammam, and the second 765kV line from Khammam to Hyderabad. Package B will thus supplement the objective of Package A in moving power from Vemagiri to the southern region.

Under Package C, one 765kV line will developed from Hyderabad to Wardha (Maharashtra) going up to the Jabalpur pooling station in Madhya Pradesh. This will help power evacuation from the Vemagiri pooling station to the western region of India. It is estimated that 1,230 mw of power will be transmitted from the Vemagiri area to the western region.

In an independent development, Power Finance Corporation had reportedly received five bids for developing the transmission system associated with IPPs of Nagapattinam and Cuddalore area (Package A). The Rs.1,025-crore project consists of a 250-km 765kV D/C line from Nagapattinam Pooling Station to Salem, and another 250-km single circuit line from Salem to Madhugiri. The project will be implemented on BOOM basis, with an estimated investment of Rs.1,025 crore. There were 18 entities that had qualified to receive the requests for proposal.

Between the two, PFC and REC have so far awarded six lines to be developed with private sector participation. In terms of number of projects, Sterlite Grid Ltd has been the most successful winning three.

Ultra-mega power transmission projects awarded
Month	SPV	Agency	kV	Rs.crore	km	Developer
May 2010	North Karanpura Transmission Co Ltd	REC	400	2,700	1,045	Reliance Power Transmission
Apr 2010	Talcher-II Transmission Co Ltd	REC	400	1,400	592	Reliance Power Transmission
Jan 2011	Raichur Sholapur Transmission Co Ltd	REC	765	300	210	Patel+Simplex+BS Transcomm*
Oct 2009	East North Interconnection Co Ltd	PFC	400	800	450	Sterlite Technologies
Feb 2011	Bhopal Dhule Transmission Co Ltd	PFC	765	900	1,000	Sterlite Technologies
Jan 2011	Jabalpur Transmission Co Ltd	PFC	765	1,300	635	Sterlite Technologies
*Patel Engineering, Simplex Infrastructures, BS Transcomm

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