Southern Grid synchronously connected with the National Power Grid

The Southern Grid has been synchronously connected to the rest of the Grid in the country. With this, the mission of  ‘One Nation – One Grid – One Frequency’ has been successfully accomplished. The southern grid connectivity was achieved on the evening of  December 31, 2013 through commissioning of Raichur-Solapur 765 kV single circuit transmission line by Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, the Central Transmission Utility of the country, interconnecting the Southern grid synchronously with the  rest of the national power grid facilitating bulk transfer of power across regional boundaries. This line of 208 circuit kilometers (ckm) and 765/400 kV substations at Raichur and Sholapur has been commissioned five months ahead of its contractual schedule i.e. 31st May, 2014  at a cost of approximately Rs.815 crores. With this interconnection, Indian power system has entered into a new era and become one of the largest operating synchronous grids in the world with about 232GW of installed power generation capacity.

Synchronous integration of Southern Grid with rest of the national power Grid shall not only augment the inter-regional power transfer capacity of Southern region but also relieve the congestion being experienced in few transmission corridors. This will be a great boost for further economic growth of the country. It is likely to take a few months before power flow over this line is stabilized.

Indian Power System is operating through five Regional Grids and a Pan India synchronous grid was envisaged for optimal utilization of the generation resources in the country. Till now, four regional grids namely Northern, Eastern, Western and North-eastern regions (NEW grid) were connected synchronously and Southern Region (SR) was connected to this NEW grid through HVDC links. Synchronous interconnection of SR with NEW grid was envisaged through high capacity 765 kV Raichur – Sholapur lines, as an ultimate step towards establishment of an “All India Synchronous National Grid” facilitating bulk transfer of power across regional boundaries.