Power ministry relaxes location norms for load-serving substations under ISTS

The power ministry has relaxed siting norms for load-serving substations under interstate transmission system (ISTS) schemes built through the tariff-based competitive bidding (TBCB) route.

The revised norms apply to new substations—such as switching stations or HVDC terminals—developed by transmission service providers (TSPs). The change follows industry representations and is now reflected in the amended standard bidding documents (SBD), including the request for proposal (RfP) and transmission service agreement (TSA).

Under the updated rule:

• Generation pooling substations must still be located within 3 km of the site proposed in the bid process coordinator’s (BPC) survey report.
  
  
• Intermediate substations remain limited to a 10 km radius.
  
  
• Load-serving substations, however, are now allowed within 5 km—relaxed from the earlier 3 km limit.
  
  

The only change is the increased flexibility for load-serving substations. The relaxation aims to ease land acquisition challenges and improve implementation efficiency for ISTS-TBCB projects.