State-Run PowerGrid to Commission 1st Commercial e-Vehicle Fast Charger Next Month

State-run transmission utility Power Grid Corp will commission by the first week of July its first commercial e-vehicle fast charger at one of the metro rail stations in Hyderabad.

"We have tied up with the Hyderabad Metro. We will commission our first commercial fast (direct current) charger at one of the metro rail stations in Hyderabad," PowerGrid Chairman and Managing Director I S Jha told reporters on the occasion of the release of a book 'Renewable Energy Technology', co-authored by him.

Jha said the company is in talks with Hyderabad Metro to install fast chargers at its 24 stations in the city, which can charge an e-vehicle in about an hour and top up half charged batteries in 15 to 20 minutes.

He further said that the company is in talks with Gurugram metro rail and Chennai metro rail to install its fast chargers at their train stations to give a boost to the e-vehicles initiative in the country.

The CMD was of the view that the public sector has to push e-vehicle initiative in the country by providing supportive infrastructure till the time it is a big hit among the private sector players.

About the green energy transmission infrastructure being developed by PowerGrid, he said the company has already completed many transmission links and the transmission infrastructure development is way ahead of clean energy project development.

He said the green energy transmission infrastructure is in place much before coming up of renewable energy generation projects in the country.

Talking about high voltage direct current (HVDC) lines, he said Champa to Kurukshetra HVDC line would be operational by the end of this year while the company will try to commission Raigarh to Pugalur HVDC by April 2019 against its deadline of 2020.

Power Minister R K Singh after launching the book, said, "Renewable energy technology covers in-depth renewable energy generation technologies and challenges associated with grid integration of renewables and their solutions. Seasoned professionals, as well as young student community interested in the domain of renewable energy, will greatly benefit from this book, which is written by qualified persons both from industry and academics working in this field.