NEW DELHI / GANDHINAGAR, October 6 — Maharatna central public sector enterprise Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID) on Tuesday formally synchronized and commissioned the first commercial phase of the 800 kV High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) bi-pole transmission link evacuating 6,000 MW of power from the massive Khavda Renewable Energy Park in Gujarat into the national unified power grid.
The high-capacity inter-regional corridor, constructed with an aggregate capital outlay exceeding ₹9,200 crore, incorporates sophisticated voltage-source converter (VSC) stations engineered to transmit bulk clean electricity across a 1,200-kilometre corridor with negligible transmission line dissipation. The dedicated infrastructure will route bulk solar and wind generation directly into major high-consumption industrial centres across central and northern India.
The Ministry of Power hailed the project as an essential pillar of India's 'One Nation, One Grid, One Frequency' architecture, directly advancing the nation's updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) target to install 500 GW of non-fossil fuel power generation capacity by 2030. Power sector regulators underscored that high-capacity HVDC lines are imperative for managing seasonal intermittency and voltage frequency stability across national renewable power pools.
Renewable energy evacuation corridors, HVDC vs HVAC transmission physics, the statutory role of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), and India's COP26 Panchamrit commitments represent vital topics in the UPSC Civil Services (GS-III: Energy & Infrastructure) and state engineering services exams. Candidates should note that POWERGRID was established in 1989 as the National Power Transmission Corporation, currently operating over 178,000 circuit kilometres of transmission lines and transmitting approximately 85 percent of India's peak inter-state power flows.