Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday, September 12, stayed the order issued by National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC), barring the state’s power distribution company, Telangana Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TGSPDCL) from participating in power bids. The court order, which was made on the same day the barring order came into effect, saved the state going into a serious power crisis, with 50% of Telangana’s power being sourced via power bids.
NLDC’s order was issued as a response to the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) lodging a complaint over the state’s power distributor TGSPDCL being asked to pay a penalty of Rs 261 crore towards power purchase from Chattisgarh. Telangana’s power distribution companies (discoms) had booked a power corridor with PGCIL to transmit electricity from Chattisgarh, after signing a Power purchase agreement (PPA) with the state in 2015.
The agreement was to bring in 1000MW power regularly from Chattisgarh’s Marwa Thermal Power Plant, but the state had failed to supply power to Telangana according to agreed amounts, with the power being supplied reportedly going as low as 200MW. Telangana, upon which, gave up on the power deal and the power grid allowed to the state due to the reason. This later led the PGCIL, levy a penalty to Telangana over unused resources.
PGCIL lodged a complaint to NLDC, which issued an order prohibiting the state discoms from the state to participate in power auctions in effect, from where discoms bid and buy power from. This would have lead to Telangana facing an embargo situation, and to depend solely on existing deals and domestic production.
Telangana, recovering from a massive flood, along with a major IT City of Hyderabad would have been fallen to a deep power crisis, if the court order was not made in Telangana’s favour. The Telangana High court, after hearing TGSPDCL petition, moved as a lunch motion, stayed NLDC’s till October 17 which will allow Telangana’s discoms to move the penalty issues legally and push for a settlement.
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