GUWAHATI, May 21 � The Assam Electricity Regulatory Commission (AERC) has asked the Assam Electricity Grid Corporation Ltd (AEGCL) and the Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd (APDCL) authorities to send to it the details concerning the implementation of the NE Region Power System Improvement Project by the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) at the earliest.
The AERC letter (AERC 497/ 2015/3 Dated 20th May, 2015) to the APDCL and AEGCL came in the wake of a letter sent to the Commission by consultant engineer J N Khataniar on May 18 in connection with the public consultation proposed by the above power utilities of the State on the project, which was scheduled for May 20.
The Commission has asked the two power utilities to send the details of the project, along with terms of the agreement with the Central and State Governments, investment plan, along with cost-benefit analysis and comments etc, for the purpose of examining the impact of the project in determining the tariff in the days to come.
In his letter to the AERC, Khataniar had said on May 18 that the APDCL and the AEGCL had issued public notice through newspaper advertisement in this connection. But In the accounting rate of return (ARR) petitions of AEGCL and APDCL for the 2015-16 fiscal nothing was found about any capital investment schemes of such kind proposed by both the organisations. Therefore, it is seemed to be very intriguing as to what is happening among these power entities, State Government and the PGCIL, he said.
Moreover, in the detail executive summery published in the websites of both AEGCL and APDCL, nowhere it is mentioned that the projects are to be implemented by the PGCIL. The said Public notice and the executive summery are contradictory to each other.�
While searching from the website of the Union Ministry of Power (MoP), it has been found one Draft EFC memo, which states that one project of similar kind was approved by the MoP, GoI�for strengthening of Intra-State Transmission and distribution projects to be implemented by the PGCIL in the six states of NE region.
If it is Intra-State project in nature, then can the Central Government appoint Inter-state transmission licensee PGCIL to execute the Intra-State Transmission projects without possessing a valid license from the competent authority of the AERC, is not understood, the consultant engineer said in his letter.
