KERC puts off hearing after industry objection

Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) has put off a public hearing on fixation of tariff for power purchase through renewable energy sources scheduled this morning, said industry sources.

The Mysore Industries Association (MIA) had earlier filed objections and sought a postponement of the public hearing scheduled on Tuesday in Bangalore.

Mysore District Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Association General Secretayr Suresh Kumar Jain told Business Standard that the public hearing was postponed following objections raised by the industry representatives of Mysore as well as Mangalore.

Earlier in a petition before the KERC, MIA President P.Vishwanath said provisions of the KERC (Tariff) Regulations, 2000, had not been followed by the petitioners. Clause-5 requires 30 days’ notice, he cited.

 

There was no public announcement through the print media in the Chamundeswari Electricity Supply Company (CESCOM) jurisdiction of Mysore and the power consumers who are likely to be affected by this were unaware of the public hearing. MIA being one of the affected parties had come to know of the hearing late in the evening on August 19, Vishwanath said.

MIA has also filed another petition citing Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd, Star Metallics & Power Pvt Ltd., Shamanur Sugars Ltd and Himatsingka Seide Ltd, petitioners for fixation of power tariff, and the government of Karnataka and others as respondents under Section 11(2) of the Electricity Act, 2003.

It has sought the KERC to direct the petitioners to follow the procedure as prescribed under regulations and hold public hearing after affording opportunity of filing objections to all the interested parties. In a separate petition, Jain added that the public hearing notification had not been published in Kannada, although it was the state’s official language. Jain told Business Standard that KERC defended the hearing saying that the notification had been published in two newspapers. However, he said this had not come to the knowledge of the stakeholders. The notification had been uploaded only on August 18 in the KERC website. When the industrialists protested over this, the hearing was postponed, he said.

The state’s three ESCOMS, Bangalore, Mangalore and Chamundeswari, have filed petitions before KERC seeking fixation of tariff for energy supplied by generators, who do not have power purchase agreements with ESCOMS, source-wise (co-generation, biomas, captive IPP etc), from February 12, 2012 to May 2012, pursuant to a Government Order (GO) of the Department of Energy, government of Karnataka.

Renuka Sugar, Star Metallics, Shamanur Sugar and Himatsingka Seide have filed petitions against the Department to off-set adverse financial impact suffered due to supply of energy. They have sought Rs 6.50, Rs 9.30, Rs 9.51 and Rs 8.83, respectively per unit for the energy supplied to the state during the period.

This is likely to impact the cost of power supply to various ESCOMS in the state and in turn the consumers.