Green Energy Corridor-iii Funds The Grid Generously, Leaves Batteries Thin, And Punjab Must Claim Its Share Now: Kbs Sidhu
Oct1,2026
| Jagrati Lahar Bureau | Chandigarh
The Centre;S 1,86,405 crore Green Energy Corridor Phase-III
bears a full third of the cost of intra-state transmission lines but only about 12% of the cost of
battery storage, said KBS Sidhu, retired Special Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab, and
Founder-Editor of The KBS Chronicle.
Of the ₹54,082 crore in central support approved by the Union Cabinet on 30 September,
₹45,005 crore goes to intra-state transmission, one-third of its ₹1,36,378 crore cost. Battery
storage receives ₹6,000 crore of viability gap funding against a ₹50,000 crore outlay, with no tax
holiday, preferential offtake or carbon credit attached. KBS Sidhu added that the 50 GWh of
storage would absorb only about twenty-two minutes of the 135 GW the scheme is meant to
evacuate: enough to shave peaks, too little to carry solar power into the evening.
He welcomed the scheme's direction. A solar park can be commissioned in eighteen months, a
400 kV line takes four to five years, and renewable power has been curtailed in several States
for want of lines to carry it. His concern is scale against track record. Phase-I, sanctioned in
2015, was still only about 80% complete in January 2022, and Phase-III is about fifteen times
the size of Phase-II. The cost per gigawatt has risen from about ₹600 crore to about ₹1,010
crore. KBS Sidhu said the Union Ministry of Power should publish State-wise allocations,
milestone schedules, the right-of-way compensation each State has adopted, and quarterly data
on curtailed renewable power.
Punjab was not covered in either earlier phase. The new scheme, however, allows projects in
such States to be sanctioned from unallocated funds. KBS Sidhu has written to the Punjab Chief
Secretary urging the State to prepare a project report quickly, through a task group under the
Administrative Secretary, Power, built around canal-top solar, paddy-straw biomass, solarised
agricultural feeders, and battery storage at PSTCL substations for the paddy-season peak. He
also urged early notification of fair compensation for farmers on whose land transmission towers
will stand.
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