RPower's rate revision plea to be taken up by July-end

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) will hear a petition filed by Reliance Power for revision of the rate of supply from its Krishnapatnam project in Andhra Pradesh.

CERC has directed Coastal Andhra Power Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Power and developing the 4,000-Mw ultra mega power project, to list the petition in the last week of July.

Earlier, this month Reliance Power submitted that subsequent to the last hearing before the commission, it had moved an interlocutory application (IA) before the high court here for withdrawal of the appeal and continuation of the interim order during the proceedings of the petition before CERC.

The IA could not be taken up by the high court and is likely to be listed for hearing after the vacation.

Coastal Andhra had earlier filed a petition in the high court saying the project was unviable due to changes in the Indonesian law that made coal costly.

Power Finance Corporation, the nodal agency for ultra mega power projects in the country, has awarded four such projects, of which Reliance Power bagged three - Krishnapatnam, Tilaiya (Jharkhand) and Sasan (Uttar Pradesh). Tata Power is executing the fourth 4,000-Mw project at Mundra in Gujarat.

An ultra mega power project involves a power plant of at least 4,000 Mw generation capacity.