The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity has directed the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission not to hold public hearings to decide tariffs amid a controversy over the government’s decision to cancel power purchase agreements signed with renewable energy generators.
The tribunal also asked the commission not to allow the state’s power distribution companies to withdraw proceedings on tariff adoption.
The directives come as a relief for renewable energy generators in Andhra Pradesh after the YS Jaganmohan Reddy-led state government said it would renegotiate tariffs and cancel power purchase agreements that had already been signed.
Alleging irregularities by the previous government of N Chandrababu Naidu in agreeing to set high tariffs for renewable energy, the new dispensation is going ahead with renegotiating tariffs, not heeding the Union power ministry’s advice.
The tribunal’s orders on Thursday came a month after its ex-parte ad-interim directives on July 29 to the APERC not to initiate any precipitative or coercive action against NTPC and the Solar Energy Corporation of India. NTPC and SECI, which had entered into procurement arrangements of 750 megawatts each of solar power on a long-term basis with the state’s distribution companies, moved the tribunal after the Andhra government decided to withdraw the PPAs entered into with 21 wind developers, citing financial burden.
NTPC and SECI feared a similar fate of wind developers such as Suzlon and Axis Energy Ventures, whose PPAs were withdrawn before the APERC.
In its interim orders, the tribunal directed the discoms not to initiate any precipitative or coercive action against the petitioners till the APERC decides on “adoption of tariff, trading margin and approval of procurement of contracted capacity.”
In its orders on August 29, the tribunal noted that NTPC and SECI were successful bidders in the competitive bidding process and had paid over Rs 100 crore each to the AP Solar Power Corporation for implementation of the projects.
The latest petition was filed by Ayana Ananthapuramu Solar, which claimed to have made investments at the behest of representations by NTPC, SECI and the state distribution companies that the adoption of tariff would be obtained from the commission in a time-bound manner. The petitioner submitted that it would suffer irreparable harm if the discoms withdrew their proceedings, pending the adoption of tariffs pertaining to the competitive bidding process.
Questioning the proposals of the discoms to initiate public hearings to adopt the tariffs for projects awarded in a competitive bidding process, the tribunal directed the commission not to permit the discoms to withdraw the proceedings on adoption of tariffs.
“We also direct the respondent-commission (APERC) not to hold public hearing since the proceedings pertain to adoption of tariff in a competitive bidding process,” tribunal’s chairperson Justice Manjula Chellur said.
