Public Hearing on 19th August at CERC on the matter of Regulation Amendment.

Yesterday on 19^th August 2015 there was a public hearing held in the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission on the draft Notification to amend the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Terms & Conditions of Tariff) (First Amendment) Regulations 2015.

In the Public hearing no State Utilities participated. From the Central Utilities, M/s Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. & M/s Tehri Hydro Development Corporation Ltd. Participated.

From the Consumer representative Sri. A. K. Datta (UPPF), Sri Saurabh Gandhi (Gen. Secy. URD) & Sri B. B. Tiwari (Secy. URD); & Sh. H.M.Sharma who participated as individual capacity. Consumer Respondent from Delhi participated & raised certain valuable suggestions & certain important objections.

Sh. A. K. Datta in his submission pointed out those frequent amendments in the Regulations results in uncertainty in the consumer tariff & also against the Multi Year Tariff Principal. He suggested that forming a committee for providing Power System Development Fund (PSDF) for Generating Companies be made when the International Prices of Gas was very high & now the price of Gas came down to very low & even lesser than Domestic price of gas. Therefore the extension of providing money from PSDF fund does not arise. Rather the Generating Companies should be encouraged for importing gases at the lower prices from the international market for consumer interest without providing the support of PSDF. Therefore providing PSDF fund to the generators is against the national interest. He further added that providing the depreciation selectively 100% in the certain materials will result in higher tariff which is against the consumer interest & is not acceptable. He also pointed out the proposed amendment of Regulation 8 will result higher tariff which is against consumer interest.

Sh. B. B. Tiwari in his submission raised certain vital issues, such as providing PSDF fund to the private generators, which is not permissible under the provisions of Law.

Sh. Saurabh Gandhi stated before the Commission that proper publicity & communication mechanism is to be developed so that all stakeholders are aware of public hearing citing to-day’s hearing as no participation by the State Utilities. It is also well apprehended that only for the sake of formality the Public hearing was conducted & Commission is pre determined what they are going to do.

Sri Sharma raised certain valuable points that under the provisions of EA 2003, The Central Commission could not make Regulations for Generating companies only because they are facing hardship for purchasing gas. The Central Commission in their explanatory memorandum did not provide the office memorandum No. 4/2/2015-Th.1 dated 27-3-2015.  Therefore it is not possible to present the proper view. He also pointed out that unless the CERC (PSDF) Regulation 2014 is amended, the Tariff Regulation cannot be amended on adhoc basis. He also raised several important points.

Commission noted all points it & asked all the participants to provide their writing arguments within one or two week’s time.