MERC Rules In MSEDCL Favour In Case Involving Greenko Subsidiary

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The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has gone with the MSEDCL view in a case involving  Orange Maha Wind Energy Private Limited (Orange Wind), a subsidiary of Orange Renewables, now owned by the Hyderabad based Greenko group. The judgement was uploaded on July 11, on the MERC site.

The case in question,involved the contention of Orange Wind , that the energy supplied by one of its 2 MW Wind Turbine Generators (WTG) in the state be counted and accounted for by MSEDCL. The problem for the firm was that this particular WTG  was not registered with the MEDA (Maharashtra Energy Development Authority). Unlike the remaining 32 MW of energy from the same project. The 5 year old project dispute finally boiled over with the MSEDCL sending out a letter for disconnection of the said WTG. The registration was stuck due to the generator being closer to a village road(185 metres)  than allowed under the regulations  or as claimed by Orange Wind (330 metres). This issue remains unresolved as on date.

Orange Wind’s contention for payment rested on the fact that it was scheduling and supplying power from the said WTG too, to which MSEDCL had not objected according to it. MSEDCL also never provided any credit notes for the ‘missing’ payments to Orange Wind. The firm claimed that 20.17 MU (million units) of energy from the said WTG are unpaid.

MSEDCL contended that with no agreement for the said WTG, it was not bound to buy the power from it or pay for it, and raised the additional issue of grid stability to disconnect the same. It also contended that a common meter made it impossible for it to prevent injection from the said WTG, though it was not bound to pay for it at all in the absense of an energy purchase agreement (EPA)for the same,  due to its pending registration.

The MERC has gone with precedence, including judgement by APTEL, to hold that MSEDCL is well within its powers to take the action it did.