TNERC Sets Aside the TN Solar Policy 2012
Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) has dismissed a petition filed by Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) for the procurement of Solar Power through competitive bidding process. The commission notified the order on 15th Sep 2014.
The summary of the Petition and the commission’s order is stated in points below:
- TENGEDCO through a petition requested before the commission to approve the purchase of Solar Power of 708 MW from 52 generators.
- TENGEDCO also requested before commission to adopt the purchase rate Rs.5.97 (10 MW), Rs.6.15 (5 MW), Rs.6.20 (15 MW) and Rs.6.48 (678 MW) per unit arrived though competitive bidding process and to allow TANGEDCO to procure solar power from those bidders by entering into power purchase agreement for a period of 20 years.
- TENGEDCO gave the reasons that the bidding has been done as per the Tamil Nadu Solar Policy 2012 which aims to procure 1000 MW of solar power for SPO (Solar Purchase Obligation) consumers.
- The Commission in its findings stated that as the commission’s order on imposing SPO was struck down by APTEL (Appellate Tribunal for Electricity), so only RPO should be applicable as mandated in APTEL’s order.
- The commission also stated that as per Tariff policy by Government of India such costly power should be procured at preferential tariff as determined by the state commission.
- By giving the above stated reasons the commission dismissed the petition of the TENGEDCO saying that the said bidding process of TANGEDCO for procurement of solar power has no legal sanctity for consideration.
The TNERC order can be accessed here.
Our previous blog post on TNERC Solar tariff can be read here.
Contributed by Dheeraj Babariya