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Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has recently passed an order on Case of AMJ Land Holdings Ltd. seeking directions against Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd. on account of wrongful denial of Open Access for January and May 2017 .
AMJ has three Wind Power Plants having an aggregate generation capacity of 4.6 MW located at Satara and Sangli District and inter alia, supplies power under OA to its group companies i.e. Pudumjee Paper Products Ltd. and Jehangir Hospital.
Main prayers of AMJ were : To Direct MSEDCL to grant OA to the extent sought by Jehangir Hospital and PPPL for the months of January, 2017 and May, 2017 and to direct MSEDCL to issue credit notes to the Petitioner for the power injected in the grid which is unadjusted in OA for the months of January, 2017 from its machine S-68 and May, 2017 from its machines S-32, S-68 and JTH-85 .
Commission observes that the above dispensation on resultant power flow coupled with annual banking facility available for RE generators is not being used in the spirit in which such dispensation was provided and it notes that the banking facility is intended to be used for adjusting the infirm injection only at its margin so as to maintain grid discipline at all times.
Wind generation is a must run generation and also before notification of MERC (Forecasting, Scheduling and Deviation Settlement for Solar and Wind Generation) Regulations, 2018, Wind Generation was non-schedulable.
Commission further notes that both the consumers, Jehangir Hospital and PPPL had sought MTOA from 1 May 2017 to 31 March 2018. However, due to difficulty faced by the consumers in making online payment, the MTOA Applications could not be processed immediately and the consumers were able to get the MTOA from June 2017 onwards only. The Petitioner has sought the directions to MSEDCL to grant OA to the extent sought by both these consumers for May 2017.
The Commission states that MTOA for May 2017 was not denied or rejected by MSEDCL, rather the consumers could not avail the same as the online payment transaction could not be completed and the MTOA Application should be submitted to the Nodal Agency between three months to 12 months prior to the intended commencement of OA.
The Commission concluded by stating that it does not deem it necessary to issue any direction to MSEDCL for grant of OA for May 2017.
To know more refer to the document below: