BENGALURU: Lack of access to suitable land in and around Bengaluru and scarce investment are among the constraints preventing KPTCL from augmenting its transmission capacity to cater to the ever-increasing demand for quality power.
Overcoming multiple hurdles, KPTCL has now proposed to collaborate with real estate developers to develop underground advanced sub-stations and support commercial activities by building multi-storey real estate spaces at its existing receiving stations in Bengaluru.
Buoyed by the success of Bescom’s Malleswaram underground transformer unit, KPTCL has also decided to set up advanced underground gas-insulated sub-stations and take up commercial construction above the ground by collaborating with real estate developers. The innovative idea, which is still in nascent stages, was unveiled by energy minister KJ George before stakeholders on Wednesday.
In Malleswaram, Bescom has constructed a transformer unit under a pavement and ensured pedestrian space is not affected.
“Bengaluru’s energy consumption is breaking all records. Considering the investment which is coming into the city and demand for power, especially through EVs and household consumption, we need to upgrade our sub-stations to handle increased capacity. Upgradation of stations requires land which is either not available or unaffordable. Hence, we have decided to upgrade our existing air insulated sub-stations (AIS) into GIS through public-private-partnership model,” George explained. Throwing light on the innovative project structure, KPTCL MD Pankaj Kumar Pandey said: “GIS stations will have lots of benefits over existing AIS ones. It will reduce carbon footprint by 70%, lower maintenance cost, reduce construction time and ensure greater reliability and safety. With PPP model, there won’t be any burden on consumers in the form of tariff increase.”
George said, “The ownership of land will be with KPTCL (govt). We will only be leasing out land to the successful bidder for 35 years. While KPTCL will take up work on setting up the GIS sub-station, the bidder will develop real estate and generate income in the space above the sub-station. After the lease expires, real estate will be transferred to KPTCL.”
