Techno Electric wins case against power regulator panel

According to reports, Techno Electric (BSE: 533281) has won a case in the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity against the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission. The case relates to the date of applicability of a tariff fixed for wind power companies in the state, who sell the power to the state electricity generation and distribution utility (Tangedco).

Wind power producers can sell their electricity to Tangedco either at a ‘preferential tariff’ (which is today Rs 3.51 per kWhr) or at what is called the ‘average pooled purchase price, or APPC. The APPC is the weighted average cost of electricity that Tangedco incurs for all its power purchases. It is today Rs 2.54 per kWhr. If a company opts to sell power at APPC rates, it will get ‘renewable energy certificates’ that can be sold on the power exchanges. Both the preferential tariff and the APPC are fixed by the state electricity regulatory commission, TNERC.

The rates are fixed annually, or for specified periods. One such period ended on March 31, 2011, but the Commission announced the APPC for the following year only on September 3, 2012. However, the Commission made it prospectively applicable.

Techno Electric and Engineering Company Ltd, whose subsidiary, Simran Projects Pvt Ltd, has 190 MW of wind power capacity in Tamil Nadu, approached the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity. It wanted the new APPC rate (of Rs 2.54 a unit) to be made applicable from April that year, and not from September, as TNERC had ordered.

In its judgment passed on Wednesday, the Tribunal upheld Simran Project’s contention, saying that the new APPC rates “would take effect from April 1, 2012 (and hold) till the new rate is fixed in the next year.