Power Ministry to ask CERC to recommend measures to bail out power producers

11 Jun 2012 Evaluate

In its bid to help the power producing companies get their due, the Union Power Ministry is contemplating the idea to urge the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to recommend measures to bail out the beleaguered power producers. The move by power ministry is highly anticipated as it would be imperative in sorting out of the ongoing logjam between promoters of big power projects and the state utilities, which are their bulk consumers.

Various power projects that have a combined generating capacity of over 59,000 MW are likely to become non-performing assets as the power producers face the prospects of defaulting on supply contracts since they are not able to pass on the increase in fuel cost to distribution companies with whom they have signed power purchase agreements (PPA). The changes made in tax laws by source nations like Australia and Indonesia have raised fuel costs for all imported coal-fired power projects, even those that were based on supplies from captive mines in these countries, thus adversely impacting Indian power producers.

However, the power ministry’s recent plan to refer the matter to the CERC under Section 72(2) (IV) of the Electricity Act, 2003, which gives the regulator the jurisdiction to look into such contractual issues and suggest a framework, might be a silver lining among dark clouds for the power producing companies. After months of lobbying by the Association of Power Producers (APP) over the issue, power projects using imported coal could be allowed by the CERC to hike tariffs by up to Re 1 per unit to counter the effect of increase in fuel price due to additional taxes or changes in law by the governments of source nations.

The likely beneficiaries of this development would be companies like Adani Power, Reliance Infrastructure, JSW Energy and Tata Power as works on their power projects were stalled owing to rising costs. Tata Power suffered a major setback due to impairment provision for its Mundra ultra mega power project in the fourth quarter of FY12 while Reliance Power abstained from implementing Rs 17,500-crore Krishnapatnam ultra mega power project in Andhra Pradesh demanding tariff revision. Besides, Adani Power and JSW Steel too demanded increase in fuel cost following the recent change in the Indonesian and Australian coal pricing law.

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