States overdrawing power and breaking grid discipline beware. The power regulator has tightened the norms for over-drawal from the electricity grid.
To levy congestion charge on northern states in the event of a grid crisis
NEW DELHI: States overdrawing power and breaking grid discipline beware. The power regulator has tightened the norms for over-drawal from the electricity grid.
The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has issued instructions for levy of a congestion charge on overdrawing states of the northern region in the event of a grid crisis with effect from November 19.
CERC already has in place a system for levy of penalty for states violating the frequency norms and the new charge is in addition to it.
Explaining the difference between the two charges, Ravinder, chief (engineering) in CERC, told DNA Money, unlike the existing unscheduled interchange (UI) the congestion charge was not linked to frequency but to congestion in the grid.
“The congestion charge will not be levied all the time but the Northern Region Load Despatch Centre (NRLDC) will spell out the trigger point,” he said.
The CERC order, released on Monday, cited an instance when a major grid disturbance occurred in the northern region on October 12, 2007 resulting in a blackout in the western half of northern region for a few hours.
The congestion charge will be at the rate of Rs 3 for every unit of over-drawal, under-drawal as well as over/under injection for all those who form the northern region, and will be added to the notified frequency-linked UI rate prevailing from time to time.
The orders will remain in force for a period of three months but the commission can decide to prematurely terminate, modify or extend congestion charge scheme based on the experience gained after its implementation.
The congestion charge will kick in from a time block to be notified by NRLDC at least 30 minutes in advance.
When all the present inter-regional links are in service, the congestion charge will come into force only when the total import of power to northern region (NR) exceeds 3,000 mw. The levy will be terminated when conditions normalise.
According to CERC, when NR was not synchronised with other regions, over-drawal by state utilities was causing the regional grid frequency to go down leading to increase in UI rates which made the state utilities to check their over-drawal.
“The circumstances have changed with the synchronisation of NR-Western Region-Eastern Region-North Eastern Region,” said the CERC order.
With the synchronised installed capacity of nearly 100,000 mw, the frequency does not fall to a level where increased UI rate would discourage over-drawal, but the loadings on transmission corridors reach dangerous levels.
“It is for this reason that the UI mechanism, which has worked well so far for controlling the situation, is not always effective and needs being supported by a supplementary commercial mechanism,” added the order.
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