More trouble for Delhi power discoms
Richi Verma, TNN 13 August 2009,

NEW DELHI: There's more trouble brewing for Delhi's power discoms. After the three discoms BSES Rajdhani, BSES Yamuna and NDPL resorted to heavy
overdrawal from the Northern Grid in the last few days, the Union power ministry has ruled that they will no longer be able to recover penalties imposed on them from consumers for this overdrawal.

Effective from this month, Central Electricity Regulatory Committee's (CERC) new guidelines forbid discoms from showing additional unscheduled interchange (UI) charges imposed on them for excessive overdrawal from the Grid in their ARR petitions to DERC for tariff determination, stating that these penalties are actually on account of inefficiency or incompetency of the discoms. Delhi's discoms BSES Yamuna, BSES Rajdhani and NDPL are also known to show additional UI charges in their annual petitions to DERC for tariff determination, said senior officials.

According to experts, overdrawing from the Grid by discoms to meet peak demand is a routine affair when load requirement in Delhi overshoots the availability. In recent months, CERC has become very strict regarding Grid discipline and imposes hefty penalty on all states who overdraw during low frequency. "There are times when discoms overdraw as much as 400MW to meet consumer demand. Delhi, however, overdraws as much as other states like UP,'' said a source.

Penalties for Grid overdrawal can run into several lakhs for each distribution company. Coming down heavily on discoms, CERC said that distribution utilities which do not forecast their demand more precisely and plan power purchase in advance will have to bear the additional charges from their own finances. "Regulators need to evolve a practice that when the ARR is being filed, the damages that have to be borne as UI charges should be stated separately and very clearly. Those payments which are in the nature of damage should not go to show purchase of power,'' said a senior CERC official.

Under the Indian Electricity Grid Code, penalising utilities which indulge in excessive Grid overdrawal was kept in mind while rationalizing the UI mechanism earlier this year, i.e. keeping frequency in the normal operating range. Officials said after this order, discoms will be required to forecast their demand more precisely and plan power purchase. "They will not be able to pass the burden of additional UI charges on to consumers,'' said an official.