The developers said KERC asked them to pay 5% of their tariff as wheeling and banking charges despite an assurance that such charges would not be levied on projects commissioned before March 2018.
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has quashed the state regulator’s order imposing retrospective charges related to transmission on renewable energy developers.
The developers had challenged a May 2018 order of the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) that imposed retrospective ‘wheeling and banking’ charges on wind, hydel and solar projects commissioned from October 2013, January 2015 and March 2017.
The order applied to projects involved in ‘open access’ transmission or those selling power to corporate entities.
The developers said KERC asked them to pay 5% of their tariff as wheeling and banking charges despite an assurance that such charges would not be levied on projects commissioned before March 2018.
“They (the HC) pronounced the order saying what KERC has done is absolutely wrong,” said PR Ramakrishnan, executive director-finance at Embassy Group, one of the developers which had challenged the KERC order. “The court has obviously seen reason in our stand. This will go a long way in making our project viable.”
The developers had argued that wheeling and banking charges would upset their financials besides creating problems for them with their investors and lenders. The court order “is a big relief for us and a lot of other developers”, said another developer and a petitioner in the case.
The developers had earlier secured a stay on the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission order from the HC.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes
