In light of the blackout that struck North India, were such an eventuality to occur in the southern states, the situation could be equally grim. The Southern Grid, which allows only 1,500 MW of power transmission for the entire southern region, was planned to be connected to the North-Eastern Grid through a corridor, to be constructed by the Power Grid Corporation of India. “The corridor is currently being developed to enable exchange of power from any part of the country to the southern states, and will be complete by 2014,” according to an official. “Until then, the corridor availability problem cannot be avoided. Even if we can purchase power, the maximum that can be imported to the entire southern region will be between 1,000-1,300 MW,” he said.
Currently, corridor allotment for getting power from other regions is a major constraint for the southern states. How much of the 1,300 MW can be availed of by each state depends on corridor availability as per advance bookings, which have to be done three months prior. Again, the states are allowed only 50 per cent of the corridor booking. “The Power Grid Corporation is coming up with 1200 KV transformers that can be useful in a situation where power has to be transferred to a distance of around 1,000-2,000 km,” the official said.