Cabinet Okays Rs 12,031 Cr worth of Green Energy Corridor Phase-II

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the second phase of the Green Energy Corridor (GEC) scheme with an outlay of over Rs 12,031 crore for laying transmission lines to evacuate 20 GW of power generated from renewable energy (RE) in seven states.

The Cabinet has approved the GEC phase-II for Intra-State Transmission System (InSTS) for the addition of approximately 10,750 circuit kilometers (ckm) of transmission lines and approx 27,500 Mega Volt-Amperes (MVA) transformation capacity of substations.

Also, the scheme would facilitate grid integration and power evacuation in seven states namely, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

The total estimated cost of the scheme is Rs 12,031.33 crore, including Central Financial Assistance (CFA) of 33 per cent of the project cost i.e. Rs 3,970.34 crore. 

Further, the transmission systems would be created in 5 financial years by FY 2025-26, and the CFA would help in offsetting the Intra-State transmission charges and resulting in reducing the power costs.

The scheme will help in achieving the target of 450 GW installed RE capacity by 2030.

It will also contribute to the long-term energy security of the country and promote ecologically sustainable growth by reducing carbon footprint, said the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in a statement.

Besides, the scheme will generate large direct and indirect employment opportunities for both skilled and unskilled personnel in power and other related sectors, it added.

This scheme is in addition to GEC-Phase-I which is already under implementation in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu for grid integration and power evacuation of approx 24 GW of RE power and is expected to be completed this year.

The phase-I is for the addition of 9,700 ckm of transmission lines and 22,600 MVA capacity of substations having an estimated cost of transmission projects of Rs 10,141.68 crore with CFA of Rs 4,056.67 crore.