Petition No. 44/TL/2012. Case: Adani Power Limited Vs National Load Despatch Centre and Ors.. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission

Case NumberPetition No. 44/TL/2012
CounselFor Appellant: Shri Amit Kapur, Advocate, Ms. Poonam Verma, Advocate, Shri Jatin Jalundhwala, Shri Jignesh and Shri Sameer, APL and For Respondents: Shri M.G. Ramchandran, Advocate, GUVNL and Haryana, Shri P.J. Jani, GUVNL, Shri U.K. Agarwal, UBHVNL, Miss Joyti Prasad, NLDC, Shri S.R. Narasimhan, NLDC, Shri Y.K. Sehgal, CTU, Shri Mukesh Khanna...
JudgesPramod Deo, Chairperson, V.S. Verma and M. Deena Dayalan, Members
IssueElectricity Act, 2003 - Sections 14, 15, 15(1), 164, 17, 17(3), 178, 2, 2(16), 2(36)(ii), 3, 41, 68
Judgement DateJune 08, 2013
CourtCentral Electricity Regulatory Commission

Order:

Pramod Deo, Chairperson and V.S. Verma, Member

  1. The petitioner, Adani Power Limited, a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 and engaged in the business of generation and transmission of electricity at various locations in the country, has made this application under Sections 14 and 15 of the Electricity Act, 2003 (the Act) for grant of transmission licence for the dedicated transmission system of 400 kV D/C Mundra-Dehgam Transmission Line and ±500 kV bipole Mundra-Mohindergarh HVDC Transmission line including associated 400 kV lines. The petitioner has made the following prayers:

    (a) Admit the present application;

    (b) Grant inter-State transmission line 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.

    Before we proceed to deal with the application of the petitioner, it is necessary to mention that during the past two years the Commission has heard a number of cases regarding dedicated transmission lines and the issues related to their scheduling, operation and sharing of charges including the petitions filed for seeking inter-State transmission license. It has become imperative to take a comprehensive view in this regard in order to obviate ambiguity and uncertainty faced by the project developers. It is our experience that even after continuous engagement with all statutory agencies during the development of the project, some issues regarding scheduling and energy accounting still remain unresolved which requires regulatory insight to resolve the issues. Similarly during the last four years, various regulatory reforms were initiated in power transmission with a view to promote investment in the power sector so that on the transmission infrastructure side no bottleneck either at connectivity level or at access level is experienced, and simultaneously transmission charges are allocated based on usage. Accordingly, the Connectivity Regulations, Sharing Regulations and Regulatory Approval Regulations have been formulated. Therefore, while dealing with the application of the petitioner for transmission licence, these broad aspects have been kept in view.

  2. The brief facts of the case are that the petitioner has set up a generating station, Mundra Thermal Power Station (hereinafter "Mundra TRS") with a total capacity of 4620 MW in the Special Economic Zone at Mundra in the State of Gujarat. The generating station has four phases, namely, Phases I & II comprising Unit Nos. 1 to 4 (4x330 MW), Phase III comprising Unit Nos. 5 and 6 (2x660 MW) and Phase IV comprising Unit Nos. 7 to 9 (3x660 MW). The petitioner has entered into two PPAs dated 2.2.2007 and 6.2.2007 for supply of 2X1000 MW power to Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) each from Phase I &II and from Phase III and PPA dated 7.8.2008 with Uttar Haryana Bijli Vidyut Nigam Ltd. (UHBVNL) and Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vidyut Nigam Ltd. (DHBVNL) for supply of 1424 MW power from Phase IV of the generating station through Case 1 bidding route. The petitioner has been selling/intends to sell the balance merchant capacity through long term, medium term and short term open access. For evacuation of power to GUVNL under the PPAs, Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation Ltd. (GETCO) has established the transmission system at 400 kV and 220 kV voltage level and is in the process of implementation of the balance system connecting Mundra TPS to various load centres in the State of Gujarat. However for evacuation of power under power purchase agreements with UHBVNL and DHBVNL, the petitioner has implemented the dedicated transmission system of ±500 kV Mundra-Mohindergarh HVDC bi-pole transmission line including associated 400 kV transmission lines.

  3. The petitioner submitted an application dated 27.4.2007 for approval of long-term access for injection of 200 MW power at Dehgam sub-station of PGCIL for supply to Maharashtra. Long-term access was approved at 9th meeting of the Standing Committee on Transmission System Planning of Western Region held on 30.7.2007. For availing long-term access, the petitioner was required to construct the dedicated transmission line from Mundra TPS to Dehgam. Approval was communicated to the petitioner by PGCIL under letter dated 12.1.2009. Accordingly, the petitioner constructed 400 kV Mundra-Sami-Dehgam D/C transmission line which is said to have been energised on 8.6.2009.

  4. The petitioner submitted an application dated 1.10.2008 for long-term access for supply of 342 MW power to Punjab and Rajasthan in Northern Region. Long-term access was approved at 27th meeting of the Standing Committee on Transmission System Planning of Northern Region held on 30.5.2009. Accordingly, the petitioner was granted long-term access by PGCIL vide letter dated 17.7.2009 with connectivity at Bhiwani sub-station of PGCIL through Mundra-Mohindergarh HVDC bi-pole transmission line, already under construction. For availing connectivity, the petitioner was required to implement and maintain 400 kV transmission line from Mohindergarh HVDC terminal to Bhiwani. Therefore, the petitioner has established the dedicated 400 kV Mohindergarh-Bhiwani transmission line.

  5. The petitioner has thus constructed the following transmission lines for evacuation of power from Mundra TPS which are being hereafter collectively referred to as "the dedicated transmission system"-

    (a) 400 kV Mundra-Sami-Dehgam D/C transmission line,

    (b) ±500 kV HVDC Mundra-Mohindergarh HVDC bi-pole transmission line,

    (c) 400 kV Mohindergarh-Bhiwani transmission line.

  6. The petitioner has stated that there has been an inadvertent flow of power from other sources as well on Mundra-Dehgam D/C transmission line. The petitioner has submitted that Mundra-Mohindergarh HVDC bi-pole transmission line is designed for 2500 MW capacity and has surplus capacity after catering for 1424 MW power to UHBVNL/DHBVNL under the PPAs and another 342 MW in Northern Region for which it has been granted long-term access. The petitioner has further submitted that the dedicated transmission system laid by it creates Dehgam-Mundra-Mohindergarh-Bhiwani corridor which can be utilized for inter-regional transfer of power to the extent of available surplus capacity. It has been stated that a meeting was convened by Power System Operation Corporation Ltd. (POSOCO) on 9.9.2011 to discuss various aspects of Mundra-Mohindergarh HVDC bi-pole transmission line and its integrated grid operation. The petitioner has filed the gist of discussions of the meeting which reveal, inter alia, the following deliberations:

    (a) The capacity of Mundra-Mohindergarh HVDC bi-pole transmission line should be optimally utilised, and further deliberations would be needed to arrive at modus operandi of utilization of the available spare capacity and treatment of transmission charges and losses.

    (b) POSOCO observed that Mundra-Mohindergarh HVDC bi-pole transmission line would be operating in parallel with existing inter-regional line between Western and Northern Regions. In case of tripping of single pole or bi-pole, the antecedent power flow on the transmission line would rush through the parallel AC network leading to a constraint in the network.

    (c) Power order on Mundra-Mohindergarh HVDC bi-pole transmission line would have implication on the calculations of total transfer capability (TTC)/available transfer capability (ATC) of Western Region-Northern Region corridor.

    (d) Any change in power order on Mundra-Mohindergarh HVDC bi-pole transmission line in real time operation could cause/relieve congestion elsewhere. It was felt that for security of the power system as well as for market operation, Mundra-Mohindergarh HVDC bi-pole transmission line should be taken into account for TTC/ATC calculations.

  7. The petitioner has submitted that from the above deliberation, it can be inferred that the dedicated transmission system built by the petitioner should be made a part of integrated all India grid. The petitioner has further submitted that the dedicated transmission lines are connected with multiple grids; inter-State transmission system (ISTS), Gujarat intra-State transmission system (Gujarat STS) and Haryana intra-State transmission system (Haryana STS), and as such are integral part of the meshed network of ISTS. It is therefore difficult to control the flow of power on these lines from other sources making it impossible to operate them in isolation. According to the petitioner, the dedicated transmission lines lose the dedicated character. Accordingly, the petitioner has made this application to seek transmission licence for the dedicated transmission lines along with associated bays, though it has also made some other prayers as extracted above. The details of the different elements of the transmission system for which licence has been sought are as under:

  8. The construction, operation and maintenance of the transmission lines and sub-stations etc is covered under the main...

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