Five power utilities, including national capital's BRPL and BYPL, "consistently failed" to clear dues worth over Rs 4,112 crore to three hydro power producers at the end of March 2015, CAG said today.
"Outstanding dues of five beneficiaries (BSES Rajdhani Power Limited, BSES Yamuna Power Limited, Uttar Pradesh Power Company Limited, Power Distribution Department, J&K and Bihar State Electricity Board) which consistently failed to clear dues of NHPC, SJVN and THDC accumulated to Rs 4,112.49 crore at the end 2014-15 against Rs 397.95 crore at the end of 2009-10," CAG said in its report.
The audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on 'NHPC Ltd, SJVN Ltd, THDC India Ltd and NHDC Ltd' was tabled in Parliament today.
"CPSEs (Central Public Sector Enterprises) relaxed the implementation of provisions of payment security mechanism as LCs were either not obtained for required amount or were not used as a means of payment security and power of defaulting beneficiaries was not regulated timely. This led to accumulation of dues," it said.
One of the main objectives of hydro central pubic sector enterprises (CPSEs) was to operate and maintain power station with maximum efficiency.
"However, the average Capacity Utilisation Factor (CUF) of four power stations of NHPC were below their respective Design CUFs and THDC has not so far been permitted to fill the reservoir up to Full Reservoir Level of EL 830 m," it said.
Design Energy of Chamera-I power station of NHPC has not been reviewed though it has consistently been generating substantial secondary energy since its commissioning in 1994-95.
"Against the operational norms for hydro power stations fixed by CERC requiring machines to be available for 24 hours during monsoon, the machines of CPSEs suffered forced outages aggregating 9,871 hours during monsoon periods of 2009-14," it said.
Substantial damages occurred to Dhauliganga and Tanakpur power stations during floods of June 2013 which were possible to have been mitigated by compliance to the provisions of reservoir operation manual/barrage regulation rules and disaster management plan, it added.
The report further said that Tehri hydro power station was designed as a multipurpose project for "Full Reservoir Level of EL 830m."
Rehabilitation of families was done by state government with funds amounting to Rs 972.97 crore provided by THDC.
"However, THDC has not so far been permitted to fill the reservoir beyond EL 825m, as a result of which the full potential of the power station cannot be utilised," it said.
CAG said that audit examination revealed that during 20 years since commissioning in 1994-95, actual generation of Chamera-I had exceeded the design energy by 13 to 60 per cent.
Despite significant and consistent variations in the actual generation vis-a-vis design energy consistently over the last 20 years, the design energy of Chamera-I power station was not reviewed by NHPC in terms of various guidelines.
"Its design energy had not been reviewed. As design energy forms the basis for recovery of fixed costs of a power station, non-review of design energy to a realistic level resulted in additional earnings of Rs 274.98 crore to Chamera-I power station during 2009-2014 through sale of 3,592 MUs secondary energy..., it said.
This puts an additional burden on the consumers, it added.
