Close on the heels of the state owned power utility Grid Corporation of Orissa (Gridco) moving to Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (ATE) against the open access allowed by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to Jindal Stainless Ltd. (JSL), the state government has decided to move the Orissa High Court against this order.
The state energy department has submitted a proposal to the law department seeking the appointment of a special counsel to take up the case in the High Court. The move of the government is based on the feeling that moving the ATE will be time taking. Gridco has already filed an appeal with ATE against the decision of CERC allowing export of 75 Mw of power by JSL to Hisar in Haryana. The utility moved the tribunal as CPPs operated by industries setting up units in the state are expected to sell their surplus power to the state government (Gridco) as per the provisions of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the state government. The CERC order put the state government in a tight spot since it was in discussion with the CPPs in the state to purchase their surplus power to meet the power deficit in the state.
