Questions are now being raised about the validity of the Tangedco’s long-term power purchase agreement for 3,330 mega watt (MW) as its tariff petition has not been approved by Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) for more than a year.
The agreement signed by Tangedco had proposed to purchase electricity at a levelised-tariff rate of Rs. 4.91 per unit for which it filed the tariff approval petition with the TNERC in 2013 under Section 63 of the Electricity Act, 2003.
Is Tangedco purchasing power without getting tariff approval from the TNERC? Tangedco officials say the bidding process was carried out through the Standard Bidding documents in a transparent manner and the petition was filed under Section 63 of the Electricity Act, 2003. “Under this section, the TNERC has to adopt the tariff. There is no question of the commission rejecting it. Therefore, we went ahead and started purchasing power,” said a senior Tangedco official.
Agrees S. Akshay Kumar, Chairman, TNERC. “There is no discrepancy in the tariff petition or in adopting the petition filed under Section 63,” he said.
Citing the rules of the Electricity Act, 2003, he said the agreement has been determined through transparent process of bidding in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Central government.
“Tangedco has also taken all the necessary permission of deviations in payment mechanism and bank guarantees and the option to decide on the scheduled delivery date,” he said.
When asked whether the daily hearing of the long-term power purchase petition has been completed, he said the hearing was completed on September 15, 2014, but refused to go into the reasons for not publishing it on the TNERC website.
However, S. Nagalsamy, member, TNERC, termed the long-term power purchase by Tangedco as “unauthorised” as the tariff petition has not been approved by the Commission. He alleged that there were several deviations in the floating of the tender, payment system, bank guarantee and evaluation of the fixing of the purchase price.
Information denied
Meanwhile, Tangedco continues to deny information regarding the agreement sought under the Right to Information Act, 2005.
To one of the queries by The Hindu under the RTI Act, Tangedco replied that as the Long Term Tender has not reached its finality, information could not be shared in the public domain.
S. Gandhi, president, Power Engineers Society of Tamil Nadu (PESOT), also asked for details of the power purchase agreement and was denied. He also questioned the legality of the Tangedco purchasing power without getting the tariff petition approved by TNERC.
