Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, Aug 27: The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has issued show cause notice to Power Development Department of the State and further threatened to take action for its failure to make payment of unscheduled interchange (UI) charges and not depositing security amount for settlement of the necessary dues. These directions were issued by the CERC while taking suo-motu notice of the default by the State Government in accordance with the CERC Regulations, 2009 pertaining to the Unscheduled Interchange charges and related matters during the financial year 2012-13.
The Commission had issued proceedings against 24 regional entities including Jammu and Kashmir for failure to comply with its regulations. The State had been told by the CERC to open a Letter of Credit (LC) equal to 110% of its average payable weekly UI liability in the previous financial year, in favour of the Regional Load Dispatch Center (RLDC) within a fortnight from the due date of payment.
“However, Jammu and Kashmir Government chose not to comply with this clause (4) of the UI Regulations and didn’t open the LC worth nearly 7 crore, which it was suppose to do “, said the recent order of the CERC. The State has been ranked fourth among the 19 defaulters in the entire country.
The other 18 defaulting Regional entities, who have been told to open LC included PSPCL Punjab (Rs 44 crore); UPPCL, UP (Rs 66 crore); Haryana (20 crore), HPSEB (3.6 crore), UT Chandigarh (76 lakh), EPPL (1.11lakh), JKHCL (1.73 crore), Tamil Nadu (32.84 crore), Simphanpuri Energy Pvt. Ltd.(9 lakh), Meenakshi Energy Pvt. Ltd. (7 lakh), Kudankulam NPP (62 lakh), Arunachal Pradesh (1.55 crore), Manipur (20 lakh), Meghalaya (3.16 crore), Mizoram (48 lakh), Nagaland (1.7 crore), Tripura (97 lakh), and NEEPCO (35 lakh).
The CERC order said that Regulations 10 of the Commission (Unscheduled interchange charges and related matters) Regulations, 2009 as amended from time to time provided for the schedule of payment of Unscheduled Interchange charges and payment security for the settlement of UI dues.
As per the provisions of the Regulations 10, “the payment of the UI charges shall have a high priority and the concerned constituent shall pay the indicate amounts within 10 days of the issue of statement of the UI charge including Additional Unscheduled Interchange charges by the Secretariat of the respective Regional Power Committee into the Regional Unscheduled Pool Account Fund of the concerned regions”,
“If payments against the Unscheduled Interchange charges including Additional Unscheduled Interchange charges are delayed by more than two days, i.e. beyond 12 days from the date of issue of the statement by the Secretariat of the respective Regional Power, Committee, the defaulting constituent shall have to pay simple interest @ 0.04 % for each day of delay”, it added.
The order said that all payments to the entities entitled to receive any amount of account of the UI charges shall be made within 2 working days of receipt of the payments in the “Regional Unscheduled Interchange Pool Account Fund” of the concerned Region.
All regional entities including Jammu and Kashmir PDD Department, which had at any time during the previous financial year failed to make payment of Unscheduled Interchange charges including Additional Unscheduled Interchanges charges within the time specified in these regulations were required to open a Letter of Credit (LC) equal to 110% of its average payable weekly UI liability in the previous financial year, in favour of the concerned RLDC within a fortnight.
Further, the order said that in case of failure to pay into the “UI Pool Account Fund” within the specified time of 12 days from the date of issue of the statement of UI charges, the RLDC shall be entitled to encash the LC of the concerned constituent shall recoup the LC amount within 3 days.
The CERC has directed that the Officer-in-charge of the Regional Load Despatch Centres or their representatives to be present in the next date of hearing.
The process of Unscheduled generation and drawal of electricity by entities puts the whole grid of the country and many other electrical equipment to danger by dumping large fluctuations in frequencies. Therefore, the Unscheduled Interchange (UI) mechanism has been developed to improve grid efficiency, discipline, accountability and responsibility by imposing charges on regional entities, who defer from their scheduled generation or drawal.
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