India plans to build cross-border transmission lines to connect Sri Lanka and build South Asian power grid interconnection

India's power minister, Rk Singh, said recently that in addition to Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh, which already receive electricity from India, there are plans to build new transmission lines to connect Sri Lanka and thus realize the interconnection
of the South Asian grid.

To take advantage of the country's huge power generation capacity, the Indian government plans to connect more neighboring countries through a regional grid that can be used to supply
electricity to surrounding countries without a sufficient number of power plants.

"State-owned power enterprises in these countries can join the Indian electricity market for electricity trading
," Singh said.
Under the current proposed framework, he added, "Pakistan will not be included in the regional grid for geopolitical reasons
.
" "The country's installed capacity currently stands at 369 GW compared to peak demand of 183 gigawatts (GW), and the establishment of an international grid is also considered to be a solution to some of the stress assets by providing surplus generation capacity
.

In fact, India has been exploring the possibility
of building a 370-kilometer cross-border transmission line from Madurai to New Habarana, Sri Lanka.
At 2012 prices, the cost of the project, including submarine cables, is estimated at more than $550 million
.
Between April 2019 and January 2020, India provided a total of 8.
014 billion electricity to Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar, an increase of 18.
6%.

Bangladesh is the largest buyer
of electricity in India.
The Bangladesh Electricity Development Commission has also signed contracts with India's Adani Power and Sembcorp Gayatri Power to source imported electricity
from coal power plants in Godda, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh respectively.

India's Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has developed draft guidelines for companies to participate in cross-border electricity trade, a move that could open up a potential market
of 5-6 billion electricity per year.

RK Singh said peak electricity demand in February was 10.
2 percent higher than in 2019, marking the "budding"
of economic recovery.
The country's electricity consumption contracted for the fifth consecutive month in December 2019 before recording a 2.
5% increase
in January 2020.
The government has yet to release official electricity consumption data
for February.
However, experts who track the sector revealed that electricity demand increased by 11%
year-on-year in February 2020.

Singh said that in the future, electricity demand growth will be higher, "Our goal is to electrify the economy and hopefully gradually replace fossil fuels
.
" ”