Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC): The Coram of P.K. Pujari (Chairperson), I.S. Jha (Member) and Arun Goyal (Member) disposed of a petition while condoning the delay in the matter filed under Section 79(1)(k) of the Electricity Act, 2003 read with Regulation 15 of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Terms and Conditions for Recognition and Issuance of Renewable Energy Certificates for Renewable Energy Generation) Regulations, 2010 seeking condonation of delay in submitting the application for issuance of Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) and other appropriate directions.
India Glycols Limited (the Petitioner) was engaged in the business of generation of electricity from its bio-mass based renewable energy cogeneration facility having an installed capacity of 12 MW located at Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh out of which 4 MW was accredited on 17-05-2016 and registered under REC mechanism on 08-06-2016. Based on the EIR received from REC Registry, the Petitioner had submitted online application on the portal on 20-08-2018 specifying the quantum for which REC needed to be issued. However, the Petitioner obtained the verified EIR report from UPSLDC only on 30-08-2018, and owing to internal processes of the Petitioner and the subsequent days i.e. 01-09-2018, 02-09-2018 and 03-09-2018 being non-working days, the Petitioner physically filed the application with NLDC on 04-09-2018. However, NLDC vide its email dated 13-09-2018 had refused to accept the request of the Petitioner. The Petitioner made another representation vide email dated 20-09-2018 which was again rejected by NLDC on 24-09-2018 based on the timelines prescribed under Regulation 7.1 of the REC Regulations, 2010. The Petitioner had filed the present petition seeking condonation of three days delay in submitting the application for issuance of RECs for the month of February 2018.
The issue before the Commission was that whether the procedural delay of 3 days in filing the application for issuance of RECs for the month of February 2018 can be condoned and whether the Respondent can be directed to issue equivalent RECs for the energy injected accordingly.
The Commission observed that as per the mandate of the REC Regulations, 2010 and the REC Issuance Procedures, the eligible entity has to apply for the issuance of REC on the Web-Based Application as per the details given in the Energy Injection Report (EIR issued by the SLDC/ on Recommendation of SERC for issuance of RECs) and shall also submit the same information in physical form with the Central Agency (NLDC) within six months. The Central Agency has to verify the application in terms of the Energy Injection Reports issued by the concerned State Load Despatch Centre in respect of the Eligible Entity, fee & charges for issuance of certificates and compliance auditors report, if any. It further observed that Petitioner had accepted the delay of three days in filing of the application for issuance of RECs for the month of February 2018 and that the delay was due to delay in approving EIR by UPSLDC and has prayed for condoning the delay and issuance of equivalent RECs. NLDC has submitted that it does not have the powers to condone the delay in the present case and under the extant Regulations/ Procedure.
The Commission condoned the delay in filing EIR by the Petitioner and held that the delay in filing physical EIR with NLDC for issuance of RECs for the month of February 2018 was because of late receipt of approval of UPSLDC which was beyond the control of the Petitioner and the same was procedural in nature and merits condonation.[India Glycols Ltd. v. National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC), 2021 SCC OnLine CERC 1, decided on 24-01-2021]
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