Petition No. 44/TL/2012. Case: Adani Power Limited Vs National Load Despatch Centre and Ors.. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission
| Case Number | Petition No. 44/TL/2012 |
| Counsel | For Appellant: Shri Amit Kapur, Advocate, Ms. Poonam Verma, Advocate, Shri Jatin Jalundhwala, Shri Jignesh, Shri Sameer, APL and For Respondents: Shri M.G. Ramchandran, Advocate, GUVNL and Haryana, Shri P.J. Jani, GUVNL, Shri U.K. Agarwal, UHBVNL, Ms. Joyti Prasad, NLDC, Shri S.R. Narasimhan, NLDC, Shri Y.K. Sehgal, CTU, Shri Mukesh Khanna and ... |
| Judges | Pramod Deo, Chairperson, V.S. Verma and M. Deena Dayalan, Members |
| Issue | Electricity Act, 2003 - Sections 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 15(1), 17, 17(3), 2(16), 2(36), 68, 9 |
| Judgement Date | June 14, 2013 |
| Court | Central Electricity Regulatory Commission |
Order:
M. Deena Dayalan, Member
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I have the privilege of going through the order of learned Members of the Commission, Dr. Pramod Deo, Chairperson and Shri V.S. Verma, Member proposing to grant transmission licence to Adani Power Limited for its dedicated transmission assets associated with Mundra Thermal Power Station. I respectfully disagree with the said order and I am recording my views in the succeeding paragraphs. For brevity I am briefly recapitulating the facts as brought out in the order of other members (order part 1). My decision that follows is based on the facts and submissions made by the petitioner, respondents, CEA and CTU.
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The petitioner has implemented Mundra Thermal Power Station (hereinafter "Mundra TPS") with a total installed capacity of 4620 MW in the Special Economic Zone at Mundra in the State of Gujarat in four phases as under:
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The petitioner has approached the Commission for grant of transmission licence under sections 14 & 15 of the Electricity Act, 2003 ("2003 Act") and Regulation 6(c) of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Procedure, Terms and Conditions for grant of Transmission licence and other related matters) Regulations, 2009 (hereinafter "Transmission Licence Regulations") for grant of transmission licence for the dedicated transmission lines and sub-stations mentioned as under:
A network diagram is annexed as Appendix I to this order.
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The petitioner has made the following prayers in the petition:
(a) Admit the present application;
(b) Grant inter-State transmission licence to Adani Power Limited under Sections 14 and 15(1) of the Electricity Act, 2003 and CERC (Procedure, Terms and Conditions for grant of Transmission licence and other related matters) Regulations, 2009 for transmission system mentioned above;
(c) Grant in-principle approval for assignment of Transmission License U/S. 17(3) of the Electricity Act, 2003, upon grant of such license, in the name of new legal entity;
(d) Grant recovery of transmission charges as per CERC (Sharing of Transmission Charges and Losses) Regulations, 2010 as amended from time to time;
(e) Consider APL is deemed LTA customer for supply of power against the PPAs entered into with UHBVNL and DHBVNL for 712 MW each upon grant of transmission license i.e. assign priority for grant of LTA over others;
(f) Condone any inadvertent omissions/errors/shortcoming and permit APL to add/change/modify/alter this filing and make further submissions as may be required at a future date;
(g) Pass such other relief or further orders, as the Hon'ble Commission may deem fit and appropriate keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case.
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Replies to the petition have been filed by Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL), Uttar Haryana Bidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited & Dakshin Haryana Bidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited (UHBVNL and DHBVNL), Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) and Rajasthan Discoms. The submissions of the respondents are discussed as under:
(a) Submissions of GUVNL dated 25.9.2012:
(i) GUVNL has submitted that it entered into PPAs with Adani for supply of 2000 MW power from units 1 to 6 of the project. The evacuation of this power is being done at the bus bar of the generating station through the use of transmission system developed by Gujarat.
(ii) The 400 KV Mundra-Sami-Dehgam Line was constructed by Adani as a dedicated transmission line in order to get connectivity with the CTU network for evacuation of its merchant share in power from the Mundra Power Station. Similarly, the +/-500 KV Bi-pole Mundra-Mohindergarh HVDC Transmission Line has been developed as a dedicated transmission line primarily for evacuation and supply of power to the Haryana Utilities at the Delivery Point (i.e. Mohindergarh) from units 7, 8 & 9 of Mundra TPS. Further these transmission lines have been developed as dedicated transmission lines without the need to apply for a transmission license and without undergoing competitive bidding process as recommended by Government of India.
(iii) Any such attempt on the part of Adani to get its above lines re-designated from dedicated transmission system into an Inter-State Transmission System of a licensee would adversely affect the beneficiaries in the region in terms of the PoC Charges payable indirectly through the charges to be levied by Power grid for the above system, and will be totally unjust and inequitable. Adani will thus be taking advantage of the position causing loss and prejudice to the consumers in the State of Gujarat.
(iv) GUVNL has referred to Regulation 6(c) of Transmission License Regulation which reads as under:
(c) a generating company which has established the dedicated transmission line, and intends to use such dedicated transmission line as the main transmission line and part of the inter-State transmission system.
GUVNL has submitted that the import of the words "intends to use such dedicated transmission line as the main transmission line and part of inter-state transmission system" in Regulation 6(c) is important. The intention of Adani in constructing the Mundra-Sami-Dehgam transmission line for connectivity and Mundra-Mohindergarh HVDC lines was clearly to use these lines as a radial line for evacuation of power from Units 7, 8 and 9 of the Power Project at Mundra for delivery of the same at Mohindergarh to the Haryana Utilities.
(v) GUVNL has submitted that that the grant of transmission license for Mundra-Dehgam and Mundra-Mohindergarh Lines to Adani would amount to converting a dedicated transmission line to an Inter-State Transmission Line, when the line is essentially and primarily for the purpose of evacuation of power from the Mundra Project and delivery of such power to the Haryana Utilities. Any attempt at this stage by Adani to consider the above lines as transmission lines and being entitled to POC Charges would amount to transferring the cost of generation to the POC Charges.
(vi) GUVNL has submitted that even if the Transmission Licence is granted to Adani by the Commission, it may be clarified that the proposed transmission systems' assets shall be owned, operated and maintained by Adani only at its own expenses as the same is the infrastructure created by Adani for connectivity and/or for evacuation of power from the generating station for transfer and delivery of power to its beneficiaries at its cost and expense. The Commission needs to adjust the equities by passing orders to the effect that proposed transmission charges and transmission losses for utilization of transmission assets by Adani are not payable by GUVNL.
(b) Submissions of Haryana (UHBVNL and DHBVNL) dated 21.9.2012:
(i) Two Power Purchase Agreements dated 7.8.2008 have been entered into by Adani with the Haryana Utilities for generation and sale of 1424 MW on the terms and conditions contained in the said Power Purchase Agreements. These Agreements were pursuant to a competitive bidding held by the Haryana Utilities for procurement of power for maintaining the supply of power to the consumers in the State of Haryana. Adani was selected as a successful bidder based on the tariff quoted by Adani for delivery of power at Dhanonda (Mohindergarh), namely, for injection of power in the State Grid Network of Haryana, which avoids the use of any Inter-State Transmission System or otherwise any transmission line or system of any other person or licensee. Accordingly, the competitive bid was clearly based on the fact that there would be no direct or indirect associated transmission costs or losses for the purpose of purchase of power from Adani by the Haryana Utilities, and ensuring reliability of transmission system as per the Grid Code for delivery of power to the state utilities at the delivery point i.e. Dhanonda (Mohindergarh).
(ii) The +/-500 KV Bi-pole Mundra-Mohindergarh HVDC Transmission Line from units 7, 8 & 9 of Mundra TPS to Mohindergarh has a total capacity of carrying 2500 MW, if both the poles are under regular operation and are fully available, i.e. each pole capable of evacuating and carrying 1250 MW. If one of the poles is backed down or otherwise not in operation for any reason including scheduled maintenance, forced outages etc, the capacity that could be evacuated from the other pole would be only 1250 MW. Even considering some overload capacity in case of outage of one pole, there is no extra transmission capacity left in the planned dedicated transmission system of Adani after delivery of 1424 MW at Dhanonda (Mohindergarh) for supply to the Haryana Utilities.
(iii) Haryana emphasises that HVDC Bi-pole from Mundra to Mohindergarh would not meet the contingency outage planning criteria of IEGC since when one pole is out, the other pole having capacity of 1250 MW shall not be able to carry even 1424 MW of power without load shedding or rescheduling of power. As any such consideration for giving ISTS licence to Adani for the referred dedicated network should only be made after ensuring delivery of committed power at Dhanonda (Mohindergarh), meeting the reliability requirement as per IEGC as mentioned above.
(iv) The consideration for setting up the dedicated line while quoting tariff under the competitive bidding process of Haryana utilities was suitable and beneficial proposition at relevant time to Adani on the premise of avoidance cost towards transmission charges of Western Region, Northern Region & WR-NR Inter-regional link and transmission losses of Western Region & Northern Region under the then prevailing Postage Stamp Transmission Pricing in order to edge out other competing bidders, which has now undergone change under the present Point of Connection Charge methodology. Such changed scenario merely arising on account of change in Regulation by the Central Commission impacting the transmission charges cannot be allowed for changing the character of dedicated transmission line to ISTS. Since, the pan-caking of...
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