SC adjourns hearing on NHPC tariff case

The Supreme Court today adjourned a hearing on power regulator Central Electricity Regulatory Commission's (CERC) petition, which challenged the decision of sectoral tribunal Aptel to take depreciation and repayment of loans into account while fixing the tariff for electricity produced by state-run NHPC.

The petition of the CERC was put up for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia, but the matter was adjourned after it found that notices were not served to all the parties concerned.

The apex court has directed that the matter be listed for the next hearing two weeks later.

It may be recalled that while fixing the tariff of NHPC's Salal Hydroelectric Project for the period between April 1, 2004, and March 31, 2009, CERC had not taken depreciation and repayment of loans into account on the grounds that depreciation was exceeding the actual repayment.

This was challenged by NHPC (formerly known as the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation) before the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (Aptel).

Aptel, on December 10, 2009, allowed NHPC's appeal and held that CERC could not discount the cost of depreciation and loan repayment while fixing the tariff.

The Salal Hydroelectric Project is located on the river Chenab in Jammu and Kashmir.