Govt Proposes To Delicence Transmission Line Setup For Bulk Consumers

The Ministry of Power has now proposed delicensing establishing, operating and maintaining transmission lines for certain segments of power consumers and electricity generators. It includes bulk power consumers, power generating firms, captive generators, or an energy storage system (ESS). 

The proposal has featured in the latest Draft Electricity (Amendment) Rules 2023. The ministry has put the draft rules in the open forum and asked the stakeholders and the public to send their objections and views on the issue by July 28, 2023. These draft amended rules also proposed weeding out some of the ambiguities in accessing power through open access and tariff regulations. 

“A generating company or a person setting up a captive generating plant or an Energy Storage System or a consumer having a load of not less than 25 MW in case of Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) and 10 MW in case of State Transmission System shall not be required to obtain licence under the Act (Electricity Act 2003) for establishing, operating or maintaining a dedicated transmission line to connect to the grid if such company or person or consumer complies with the Regulation, technical standards, guidelines and procedures issued under the provisions of the Electricity Act 2003,” the draft rules read. 

Open Access

The draft rules also touched upon three aspects of Open Access to bring more uniformity to the system. These were related to the wheeling charges, charges for using a State Transmission Utilities (STU) network and Additional Surcharge.

The draft rules said that wheeling charges would be calculated by dividing the aggregate revenue requirement towards wheeling with the energy wheeled during the year. 

It also said that the charge for using the STU network for short-term open access should not be more than 110 percent of the charges levied on consumers using the STU network on a long-term basis. 

It also said that the additional surcharge on any open-access consumer should not be more than 50 percent of the wheeling charges. 

ARR and approved tariff 

The draft norms also said that the tariff should be cost reflective and there should not be any gap between the approved Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) and estimated annual revenue from the approved tariff except under natural calamity conditions. 

It also proposed special measures for the petitioners who wanted to appeal against any order of the appropriate commission before the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity. It has asked the complainants to pay at least 50 percent of the payable amount per the order of the appropriate commission if they want to challenge the order before the appellate authority.