While lauding the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission`s (CERC) propositions for waiver of penal provisions for under-injection and allowing free access for generating stations to the grid under the Unscheduled Interchange (UI) regime, the apex agency on the power sector-- the Central Electricity Authority (CEA)-- has, however, maintained that there should a cap on the use of grid for unscheduled wheeling of power. Commenting on a draft prepared by the central regulator for amendment of the Unscheduled Interchange (UI) Regulations, 2009, CEA has asserted that no generating station should be allowed to go on injecting power beyond a reasonable point, in the name of testing and commissioning, under this regime.
According to CEA, if more and more power stations owned by the independent power producers (IPP) start pumping their entire power into the grid, a situation that is already being reported from the Western region, the IPPs will virtually start controlling the grid frequency, influencing short term market prices and may also create various other problems that arise due to unpredictable flow of power in the grid.
Referring to the energy crisis that occurred during 2000-01 in the western US-state of California, CEA has asserted that it would be important to ensure that the capacity availability is not manipulated or withheld deliberately in a free market for power. The authority has, thus, desired that the IPPs should honestly declare their respective availability, to the Regional Load Dispatch Centers (RLDCs) with appropriate jurisdiction, on a daily basis, as per the Indian Electricity Grid Code (IEGC).
Pertinently, CERC, in this amendment to the UI regulation, has proposed to allow the generating stations to inject as much power as they want into the grid, at any point of time, without seeking any permission or approval from the LDC`s, paying only an UI charge of Rs 4.15 kwh, with no penalty for under-injection.
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