APTEL's Judgement on Solar Tariffs in Gujarat
Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL), had filed a petition before Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission in 2013, asking for revision in Solar Tariffs determined by the commission in its order dated 29th January, 2010. The state commission, after hearing the parties, had dismissed this petition.
Aggrieved by this, GUVNL appealed to the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) against the stand taken by GERC. APTEL, after hearing all parties, gave its judgement, on 22nd August 2014, that the petition filed by GUVNL does not hold merit and rightly stands dismissed by GERC.
The following are some of the reasons cited by APTEL for its judgement:
- GUVNL quoted reduction of Customs and Excise duties in 2010, to justify reduction in tariff, but it did not approach the commission in 2010. The projects were commissioned by end of 2012, after which GUVNL appealed in 2013.
- There is no ‘Change in Law’ clause in the PPA agreement between GUVNL and the project developers.
- GERC, while determining the tariffs in 2010, was conscious about the change in environment, and thus fixed the tariff for 25 years, with multiple control periods, so as to review and determine tariffs for each control period as and when required.
- Generic tariff order on normative parameters cannot be reviewed for changes that occour during project development.
- The project developers have acted as per the tariff order, and withdrawing the incentives now is not justified, as the projects are already running.
- PPA can be opened only for giving thrust to renewable energy projects, and not for curtailing the incentives.
As per the Solar Tariff order dated 29th January, 2010, the tariff determined is shown below:
The APTEL judgement can be accessed here.
Gujarat order on Solar Tariff can be accessed here.
Contributed by: Siddhartha