Power Minister directs officials to remove bottlenecks for early completion of ISTS

New Delhi: Union Minister RK Singh has reviewed the progress of Inter State Transmission System (ISTS) and directed officials to iron out issues for early completion of such projects, an official statement said on Friday.

The Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy reviewed the inter- state transmission plan for states, including Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. He also reviewed inter-state and intra- state transmission plans for states in North Eastern region, the statement said.

The Minister chaired the meeting on Thursday in Jaipur.

"Singh focused on the progress of projects under planning and bidding phases and those under implementation. The bottlenecks being faced in project execution were deliberated in detail, based on which the minister issued directions to resolve the issues for early project completion," it said.

India's commitment is to achieve the target of 50 per cent of installed electricity generation capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030, and development of associated transmission infrastructure is key to achieving the target.

By 2030, the country's installed power capacity is likely to grow to over 777 GW and the peak demand is slated to reach 335 GW, he said.

Given this, a comprehensive transmission plan to evacuate 537 GW of renewable energy capacity has been drawn up, considering the renewable energy potential in different parts of the country.

The ISTS is instrumental in meeting electricity needs of citizens, by facilitating transfer of power from power-surplus to power-deficit areas, Singh said.

He emphasized that the transmission planning should consider the emerging requirements such as green hydrogen production; increase in conventional generation capacity to meet growing power demand; and offshore wind generation in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

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