Much to the relief of 50-odd private power producers in the state, the Andhra Prdesh High Court today set aside the order of the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) permitting APTransco to collect wheeling charges at the rate of 50 paise per unit in cash and 28.4 per cent in kind, notwithstanding the wheeling agreements they had with the state power tansmission utility.
The division bench consisting of justice BSA Swamy and jusice G Yatirajulu in its much-awaited judgement made it clear that the wheeling agreements that were entered into by various power producres with APtransco were valid.
The court also directed APTransco to return all the bank guarantees that were given by the power producers on monthly basis with regard to the disputed wheeling charges amount.
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The wheeling charges issue pertains to the order issued by APERC on March 24, 2002 for implementation during fiscal 2002-03.
As per the order of the regulator, all the power prouducers using the wheeling services of APTransco were to pay at the rate of 50 paise per unit in cash as network and balancing and ancilliary charges and 28.4 per cent in kind as compensation for system losses.
This was expected to give an additional revenue of Rs 130 crore per annum to the APTransco in 2002-03.
However, challenging the APERC order, the private power producers filed suits in the high court. The matter went upto Supreme Court.
As per the original proposal of APTransco, it was to impose a wheeling charge of 100 paise per unit including compensation for T&D losses of 19.5 per cent.
However, the commission had allowed for collecting wheeling charges in a combination of both cash and kind, thus making the power producers to bear more losses than what was sought by Transco, the petitioners contended in the court.
The decision of the commission to impose