Legal Reference Library

In a 498 page judgment on appeals filed by the Adani, Tata, GMR and other groups, the Hon'ble Appellate Tribunal For Electricity clarified various issues including :- a) Definition of "Composite Scheme" b) Jurisdiction of CERC in "Composite Schemes" c) Alteration of tariff by the CERC The Hon'ble Tribunal decided that the supply of power to more than one State from the same generating station of a generating company, ipso facto, qualifies as ‘Composite Scheme’ to attract the jurisdiction of the Central Commission under Section 79 of the said Act. Further the Hon'ble Tribunal quashed the regulatory powers of CERC under Section 79(1)(b) of Act, to alter or modify the tariff which has been determined by way of a competitive bidding process, holding that the CERC may by way of its adjudicatory powers under section 79(1)(f) of the Act, award relief to the power generating companies as per the provisions of the PPA if a case of force majeure is made out.

The tariff fixed in a power purchase agreement (PPA) is not sacrosanct and it could be reviewed by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, which is the statutory authority for fixing tariff under the Electricity Act, the Supreme Court ruled last week in its judgment, Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd vs Tarini Infrastructure Ltd. The state regulatory commission had declared that it had no such power to review. However, the appellate tribunal decided that the commission did have the power.