CERC to announce new power trading norms next month

The power regulator Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) will come out with new trading regulation for the country next month.

The regulation would be implemented with the immediate effect for new applicants seeking power trading licenses. But the existing ones would be given time, to align themselves in accordance with the new regulation till March 2010.

"The new trading regulation to regulate power trading in the country will be brought out by next month. Consultations for new regulations is almost over," a senior CERC official told PTI.

He said, "The new regulation would have more stringent provision to restrict allotment of licenses to serious players with credit-worthiness. We are planning to bring the number of categories of licenses from six to three under the new regulation."

This would replace the existing norms brought in 2004. Under this, there are six categories of licenses for which one can apply depending upon the applicants' networth and amount of electricity to be traded every year.

At present, an applicant is required to have net worth of Rs 1.5 crore for allotment of license under category A, which gives him the right of power trading of up to 100 million kilo watt hours (KWh).