IN THE APPELLATE TRIBUNAL FOR ELECTRICITY (Appellate Jurisdiction)

APPEAL No.109 OF 2022 Dated: 07.08.2025 Present: Hon`ble Mr. Sandesh Kumar Sharma, Technical Member Hon`ble Mr. Virender Bhat, Judicial Member In the matter of:

RKM Powergen Pvt. Ltd.

2^nd & 3^rd Floor

14/45 DR. Giriappa Road T-Nagar, Chennai - 600017 …Appellant Versus

1. Chairman, UP Power Corporation Ltd.

Shakti Bhawan, 14-Ashok Marg Lucknow UP:-226001 (U.P.)

Email: cmd@uppcl.org

2. Managing Director, MVVNL

4A, Gokhale Marg, Lucknow UP:- 226001 (U.P.)

Email: md.mvvnl2010@gmail.com

3. Managing Director, PVVNL Urja Bhawan Victoria Park MD Camp Office Meerut:- 250001 (U.P.)

Email: mdpaschimanchalvvnl@gmail.com

4. Managing Director, PUVVNL DLW Bhikaripur Varanasi:- 221004 (U.P.)

Email: mdpurvanchalvvnl@gmail.com

5. Managing Director, DVVNL Urja Bhawan, NH-2 Sikandar:- 282007 Email:- dvvnlmd@gmail.com

6. Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission Vidyut Niyamak Bhawan, Vibhuti Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 226010 Email:- secretary@uperc.org …Respondents Counsel of the Appellant(s) : Sajan Poovayya Sr. Adv.

Hemant Singh Mridul Chakravarty Biju Mattam Supriya Rastogi Agarwal Chetan Kumar Garg Lakshyajit Singh Bagdwal Ankita Bafna Harshit Singh Alchi Thapliyal Lavanya Panwar Robin Kumar Sindhuja Rastogi Counsel of the Respondent(s) : Nalin Kohli, Sr. Adv.

Shankh Sengupta Abhishek Kumar Nived Veerapaneni Karan Arora Shubham Mudgil Kartikeya Yadav Sujoy Sur Vedant Kumar for Res. 1 to 5

J U D G M E N T

PER HON’BLE MR. VIRENDER BHAT, JUDICIAL MEMBER

1. The appellant M/s RKM Powergen Private Limited is aggrieved by the order dated 30.09.2020 passed by the 6^th respondent Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (hereinafter referred to as “the Commission”) in petition no.1365/2018 thereby considering some of the events pleaded by the appellant in the petition as Change in Law (CIL) in terms of Article 10 of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) dated 15.03.2016 executed between the appellant and the respondent nos.1 to 4 whereas rejecting the claim of the appellant with regards to certain other events.

2. Facts and circumstances giving rise of the instant appeal are stated briefly hereinbelow.

3. A coalfired thermal power plant with capacity of 1440MW comprising of four units with generating capacities of 360MW each is owned and operated by the appellant as a joint venture with Mudajaya Corporation Berhad, Malaysia. The power plant is located at Uchpinda, State of Chhattisgarh. Unit-1 of the power plant has been commissioned on

27.11.2015.

4. The 1^st respondent Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (in short “UPPCL”) is the nodal agency/authorized representative for the respondent nos.2 to 5 which are UP Discoms. The respondent nos.2 to 5 have different allocations of power from the appellant’s power plant under the PPA.

Respondent no.3 is the lead procurer and authorized to act for and on behalf of other procurers i.e. respondent nos.2, 4 & 5.

5. In the year 2012, the 1^st respondent UPPCL initiated a bid process for procurement of 6000MW power under Case-1 of the bidding guidelines issued under Section 63 of the Electricity Act, 2003. Accordingly, Request for Proposal was issued on 27.07.2012.

6. The appellant submitted its bid on 21.09.2012 for supply of 350MW power at a levelized tariff of Rs.5.088/kWh for a period of 25 years. In the bid, the appellant mentioned two sources for procurement of fuel namely South East Coal Fields Limited and Captive Coal Block being Fatehpur East in Mond-Raigarh area.

7. Based on the evaluation of non-financial bids, financial bids and the recommendations of the Bid Evaluation Committee as well as Energy Taskforce of Government of Uttar Pradesh, Letters of Intent (LOIs) were issued by the 1^st respondent UPPCL to first seven successful bidders including the appellant, which had emerged as L-4 amongst the successful bidders.

8. On 23.05.2013, the appellant informed the UPPCL about the uncertainty of the availability of the captive coal block as