Section 7 in Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Planning, Coordination and Development of Economic and Efficient Inter-State Transmission System by Central Transmission Utility and other related matters) Regulations, 2018
7. Process of Transmission Planning.
- The Central Transmission utility shall carry out transmission planning for augmentation and strengthening as under: -(1)The Central Transmission Utility shall review and carry out transmission planning exercise at least twice a year,(2)Consider applications for long term access, projections of electricity demand and generation, policy imperatives including renewable energy addition, national electricity plan and operational feedback from NLDC/ RLDCs/ SLDCs in terms of reliability and congestions;(3)Prepare base case for each probabilistic scenario (options) by considering details of generation as per national level data registry maintained by CEA, details of demand from distribution licensees or State Transmission Utilities (demand projections estimated by STUs in coordination with distribution licensees) or Authority, existing and under-construction inter-State and intra-State transmission network up to desired voltage level for the above exercise;(4)Distribution licensees and STUs shall provide the required inputs. In case, the required input is not made available by STU / distribution licensee, CTU shall approach RPC for required input.(5)System studies shall be conducted for various probabilistic scenarios which includes generation and load scenarios during peak, off-peak and other than peak/ off-peak hours for different seasons considering low, moderate and high renewable capacity addition, varying import/export requirements of each state and scheduling of various generating stations under economic dispatch for which variable cost of existing and upcoming generating stations shall be factored in.(6)In case requirement of total Injection to ISTS happens to be more than withdrawal requirement from ISTS, planning of ISTS shall be done for various scenarios of dispatch factoring known firm tie-ups of power.(7)While planning the transmission system, options of upgrading the existing ISTS in place of building new transmission lines such as increasing line loading through use of compensation, reconductoring, etc., for optimally utilizing the existing assets, should also be considered.(8)Based on progress of implementation of generating stations and upstream/ downstream systems, midcourse correction for transmission system to the extent possible should be made in terms of (i) Reconfiguration of planned transmission system, (ii) Phasing of transmission elements and (iii) Delay/ Deferment of some of the transmission elements;(9)The Central Transmission Utility shall also review the inter-State transmission system in the event of change in commissioning schedule of upstream and downstream system, shift of target region, phase out of generation units, operational feedback of Regional Load Dispatch Centres and exit from long term access.(10)Before finalizing the transmission scheme, CTU shall publish the details of all probabilistic scenarios and suggested transmission schemes on its website and seek stakeholder's comments. CTU shall finalise the transmission scheme after considering the responses received from stakeholders.(11)Associated Intra state network planning by STU shall be integrated with planning of inter-state network. After finalization of the transmission scheme, the base case prepared as per sub-Regulation (2) and system studies carried out as per sub-Regulation (3) above along with underlying assumptions, methodology and planning criteria shall be placed before the concerned Regional Power Committee(s); All such proposals to RPC(s) shall be accompanied with documents mentioned at Regulation8(3) below.(12)RPC(s), on receipt of proposal from CTU, shall consider and convey its recommendations to CTU within 2 months of receipt of such proposal.(13)ln case RPC doesn't agree with the proposal either fully or partially and CTU is of the view that the scheme is in interest of grid security/ stability or decongesting the network or overcoming a contingency, it shall record this in writing and seek regulatory approval of the Central Commission. However, prior to seeking regulatory approval, CTU shall share the reasons for not agreeing with the recommendations of concerned RPC(s) with that RPC.(14)In case a transmission system is required in national interest or is of security /strategic importance and is funded through grant by Government of India/ State Government, CTU may, incorporate such system/ scheme directly on seeking regulatory approval of the Commission.
