It carries 40 per cent of India's power generated annually-a staggering 200 billion units of power valued at Rs 35,000 crore (Rs 350 billion).
Now it is eyeing the global market and taking a tentative step by participating in a power transmission project in Kazakhstan.
The public sector behemoth PowerGridCorporation of India is advising the International Finance Corporation, the soft lending window of the World Bank in setting up a transmission project at Kazakhstan.
"We have bagged the consultants mandate and will be advising the IFC on the modalities of setting up a transmission project in Kazakhstan through a public-private partnership. We may also pick up a small stake of 2 to 5 per cent in the project, " R P Singh, CMD of PowerGrid, said.
He was speaking at a press conference just after PowerGrid and Tata Power signed the shareholders agreement for setting up the 1,200 km, Rs 1,100 crore (Rs 11 billion) Tala transmission line.
"It is time to look at the global opportunities. Further, the Tala project has emerged as a test case in the eyes of the multilateral funding agencies for public private partnership in the transmission sector. Previous experience of the private sector participating in transmission projects in places like Philippines and Argentina have not been successful," Singh added.
The Tala transmission project, a 51: 49 joint venture between the Tata Power Company and PowerGrid, will be funded by a debt equity mix of 70: 30.
A number of banks and financial institutions like the State Bank of India, the Unit Trust of India and multilateral funding agencies like the IFC have evinced interest in funding the project.
It entails the construction of a 400 kv double circuit transmission line from Siliguri in West Bengal to Lucknow-and Mandola in Uttar Pradesh.
The line will facilitate the evacuation of power from the 1020 mw Tala Hydro Electric project in Bhutan and carry surplus power from the eastern grid to the power deficit northern grid.
