BEFORE

THE UTTAR PRADESH ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION, LUCKNOW

In the Matter of:  Application for Annual Revenue Requirement for the F.Y.2002-03 under section 24 of the Uttar Pradesh Electricity Reforms Act 1999

Petitioner: The Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited. 

ORDER

1.            An application for Annual Revenue Requirement for the Financial Year 2002-03 was received from the UP Power Corporation Limited u/s 24 of the Uttar Pradesh Electricity Reforms Act, 1999 on 29^th April 2002. The Commission carried out preliminary scrutiny of the proposals in the application and passed an order on 7^th May 2002 indicating several deficiencies in the ARR petition filed by UPPCL. The order contains an exhaustive list of items on which UP Power Corporation was directed to provide necessary information to the Commission.

2.            UP Power Corporation Limited has provided certain information through their letter No.552-RAU/Tariff-Order dated 13^th June 2002. The information provided by the licensee was found to be incomplete and also not in the formats as required under Chapter II of the UPERC (Conduct of Business) Regulation 2000. The Commission has carefully and objectively considered the said information and made certain observations about it, which were communicated, to the Corporation on 17^th June 2002.

3.            The critical most information, which was not submitted by the licensee, is in regard to the slab wise, category wise, voltage wise sale and revenue of at least four billing cycles of year 2001-02.  In their letter sent on 13.6.2002, UPPCL has furnished the details of revenue in year 2001-02 from each category. It is noted that revenue shown in the said communication is different from that of the figures submitted in the ARR filed on 29.4.2002. If the current figures are assumed correct then UPPCL has to revise the ARR.  Another important omission relates to the proposed agreed power purchase price between the licensee and the State Generating Companies, which would eventually be worked out after the Power Purchase Agreement is finalized between the parties. The need of the executing the PPA has been emphasized by the Commission several times requiring UPPCL and State Generating Companies to submit the mutually agreed PPA before the Commission for its consideration. It is unfortunate that in spite of several reminders sent by the Commission and promises made by UPVUNL and UPPCL to file the PPA, no PPA has been submitted so far. Yet another fact is that the information provided so far is not complete as per the directives issued by the Commission in its last two Tariff Orders dated 27^th June 2000 and 1^st September 2001. The status of implementation of these directives is quite un-satisfactory. In most of the case the licensee has taken either no action or the action taken has been inadequate and unsatisfactory. This clearly shows that the licensee has not been taking the orders and directions of the Commission seriously and has been acting in most casual manner not befitting an organization that plays such an important role in the economic life of the people of the State.

4.            The Commission had sent a consolidated list of items requiring action from UPPCL vide its letter dated 13.3.2002 and 3.4.2002 to UP Power Corporation and directed them that action taken on each of the item should be incorporated in the ARR application for the financial year 2002-03. It is regrettable that UPPCL has simply provided the Commission a status report on the compliance of the directions without mentioning the time bound action plan assuring compliance of such directions. It is to be noted that the Commission in its order-dated 7.5.2002 directed UPPCL to submit an Action Plan on tasks that are still to be carried out / completed indicating the date by which it shall be carried out/completed.

5.             The information yet not provided, as explained above, is of utmost importance in examining the ARR and in determining the tariff and it would be difficult for the Commission to proceed further in the absence of such details. In view of above, the UP Power Corporation is directed to provide the following information required for purposes of examination and scrutiny of the proposals contained in the ARR for the FY 2002-03: -

i) Sale of    energy   to all   categories of consumers in   the year 2001-02, figures of     revenue assessed as per the energy sold and the figures of revenue collected during the year. These figures should be based on the billing information of at least four billing cycles of the year 2001-02.

ii) Expected figures of    sale of    energy to all    categories of   consumers and revenue assessed in respect thereof during the year 2002-03 and the revised ARR for the year 2002-03 with proposal for meeting the revenue gap, if any. .

iii) Power Purchase Agreement between   U.P.Power Corporation Limited and the State Generating Companies mentioning, in particular, the agreed purchase price of energy between the parties.

iv) Cost of energy in respect of different categories of consumers at various voltage levels.

v) Definite action plan for time bound effective implementation of the directions of the Commission indicating also the officials nominated to be responsible for ensuring their implementation.

6.            It may be appreciated that the required complete billing information collected and analyzed for at least 4 billing cycles, may affect the entire arithmetic relating to sale and revenue and UP Power Corporation Limited may have to file a revise ARR petition accordingly.

7.            As already indicated in Commission’s order dated 7.5.2002, the ARR filed on April 29^th is incomplete and does not contain vital information for considering the Revenue Requirement of UPPCL for 2002-03. Even after six weeks’ of the Commission’s order the situation remains the same. In view of this the ARR dated April 29^th 2002 is hereby returned and the licensee is directed to revise and re submit the ARR incorporating the information as required with in two weeks. The ARR will then be scrutinized and further action on tariff revision for 2002-03 shall be taken.

(Arun Sarkar)                               (S. C. Dhingra)                       (J.L.Bajaj)

Member                                       Member                                 Chairman

Place: Lucknow     

Dated: 25.6.2002.                                                                                                                                                                            

 

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