Approach regulator: Andhra HC to discoms on new tariffs
HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh high court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by solar and wind power producers opposing the YSR Congress Party government’s decision to review power purchase agreements (PPAS) they signed with the previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government, dealing a setback to the alternative energy utilities.
A division bench headed by justice M Ganga Rao, which heard a batch of petitions filed by nearly 40 renewable energy producers, suggested that they approach the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission instead. The HC had on September 18 reserved its verdict on the petitions.
“The court cannot decide on the matters that are under the purview of the regulatory commission. The petitioners can raise their objections before the commission,” the bench said, and directed that the commission resolve the matter in six months.
Since coming to power in assembly elections, held simultaneously with the April-may Lok Sabha polls, chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has revisited several projects undertaken by the TDP under former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, including the Polavaram multipurpose irrigation project , and slashed funding to the plan to build a brand new capital city in Amaravati .
The court, however, set aside a government order dated July 1 that called for the appointment of an expert committee to renegotiate the PPAS signed by the alternative energy producers with the Telugu Desam Party government that was defeated by the YSR Congress in the April 11 assembly election.that came against the backdrop of a government assurance to the court that it would approach the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission instead of directly reviewing the PPAS.
The only relief the solar and wind power producers received was in the form of a court directive to power distribution companies in AP to continue purchasing power from them at a tariff of ₹2.44 per unit until the disposal of the matter by the Commission. The PPAS signed by the previous government for wind and solar power had set an average tariff of ₹4.70 per unit and ₹5.8 per unit, respectively.
During the course of the hearings, power producers argued that the state government had no say in the contracts which were signed between the distribution companies and the developers and that because the PPAS had been approved by the regulatory commission, the agreements could not be renegotiated.
The state government argued that the TDP administration had favoured a few companies by signing high-cost PPAS, causing a loss to the distributors -- the reason for the decision to lower the tariffs. Subsequently, it told the court that it would approach the regulatory commission again.