The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has requested the government to direct state transmission utilities (STUs) to take the required steps in optimising the utilisation and monetisation of their spare optical ground wire (OPGW) capacity.
Besides transportation of power, these can also be used for telecommunication purposes. It added that various STUs currently own and operate around 100,000 km of the said infrastructure.
According to ASSOCHAM, the monetisation of existing unutilised passive fibre infrastructure by different state transmission utilities will lead to an increase in revenues for the STUs without a significant financial investment, ultimately reducing the electricity tariff paid by the end consumers. Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited has already implemented this with Sterlite Power by forming a joint venture (JV) Maharashtra Transmission Communication Infrastructure Limited (MTCIL).
