MERC dismisses TPC-D's plea to pass through Additional Deviation Charges in ARR and to force OA/HT/captive consumers to submit schedules & share DSM charges
Petition of Tata Power Company Ltd.- Distribution seeking relaxation/modifications in Regulations 4 and 10 of the MERC (Deviation Settlement Mechanism and Related Matters) Regulations, 2019 and in Regulation 55.1 of the MERC (Multi Year Tariff) Regulations, 2019
TPC-D sought relaxation of DSM Regulations 2019 (Reg 4 & 10) and MYT Regulations 2019 (Reg 55.1) to (i) allow Additional Deviation Charges as a pass-through in ARR, citing uncontrollable weather-forecast errors and a stringent 9 MW volume limit, and (ii) direct partial OA consumers, in-situ captive consumers and large HT consumers to submit daily schedules and share proportionate Additional Deviation Charges, arguing their unpredictable drawal causes deviation and grid-security risk for the licensee.
- Rejected pass-through of Additional Deviation Charges in ARR; allowing it would remove the dis-incentive for licensees to breach drawal schedules and defeat DSM's grid-discipline objective
- Rejected levy of proportionate Additional Deviation Charges on partial OA, in-situ captive and large HT consumers; expanding DSM scope to these consumers would need separate regulatory amendment
- Held that DOA Regulations already settle partial OA consumer overdrawal at the higher of DSM-based charges or Temporary Tariff variable charge - no further change needed
- Directed Distribution Licensees to treat 'previous day's schedule' as default when in-situ captive consumers (≥1 MW) fail to submit net consumption schedule under State Grid Code Reg 50.2.4
- Directed in-situ captive generators to give 24-hour advance notice for planned outages and immediate intimation for tripping/forced outage
- Directed STU to submit a concrete, cost-effective SCADA implementation plan within 3 months in consultation with the Grid Co-ordination Committee; Case No.114 of 2020 dismissed
- STU to finalize and submit a cost-effective SCADA visibility plan within 3 months in consultation with the Grid Co-ordination Committee
- Distribution Licensees to apply 'previous day schedule' default for non-submitting in-situ captive consumers (≥1MW) per State Grid Code Reg 50.2.4
- In-situ captive generators to give Distribution Licensee 24-hour advance notice for planned outages and immediate notice for tripping
- MSEDCL/licensees to actively seek compliance on schedule submission from partial OA/captive consumers and approach Commission separately with non-compliance data if needed
- DSM commercial implementation to proceed from 28 December 2020 following software trial runs (started 14 Oct 2020)
- Commission may review DSM volume limits for intra-state entities later based on actual trial/commercial operation data
- • Partial OA, HT and in-situ captive consumers remain outside the DSM Additional Deviation Charges regime for now - no new deviation-charge liability from this order
- • Captive generation consumers (≥1MW) must proactively submit net consumption schedules to DISCOMs or risk 'previous day schedule' being assumed against them
- • Planned/forced outages of captive generating stations now carry a formal notice obligation (24-hr for planned, immediate for tripping) - operational compliance needed to avoid disputes
- • Distribution licensees cannot pass Additional Deviation Charges into tariffs, so C&I consumers are shielded from this specific cost pass-through for now, though licensees continue to bear DSM risk directly
For C&I and OA developers this is a favourable status-quo outcome: MERC refused to let DISCOMs offload DSM penalties onto embedded OA/captive/HT consumers or recover them via tariff, preserving predictable OA economics. However, the direction to treat non-submitted captive schedules as 'previous day' and mandatory outage notices signal tightening compliance expectations - captive/OA consumers should formalize scheduling and outage-intimation processes now, as MERC may revisit volume limits and consumer-level obligations once DSM trial/commercial data (from 28 Dec 2020) is analysed.
Growthifye does not take responsibility for the accuracy of this information. Values are compiled from tariff orders published on the websites of State Electricity Regulatory Commissions and distribution licensees (plus CEA / MoP / Grid-India), parsed automatically and shown with their source. Always verify against the signed order before any commercial decision. This one-pager is a Vidura-assisted summary of the official order; the signed order prevails.