JUDGMENT

PER HON’BLE SMT. SEEMA GUPTA, TECHNICAL MEMBER (ELECTRICITY)

1. The present Appeal is filed by the Appellants challenging the order dated 16.05.2024 (“Impugned Order”) passed by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (“CERC/ Central Commission”) in Petition No. 68/MP/2023 along with I.A. No. 18/IA/2023, whereby the Respondent Commission has determined the liability of payment of transmission charges for the period of mismatch between generation project and transmission system upon the Appellant No.1.

The facts in brief are stated here-in-below:

2. Appellant No. 1 is a group company and other group companies, namely, Appellant Nos. 2 to 4 having 3 solar power projects viz., SEI Ravikiran Energy Pvt. Ltd. (“SEI Ravikiran”), SEI Jyotiswaroop Power Pvt. Ltd. (“SEI Jyotiswaroop”) and SEI Renewable Energy Pvt. Ltd. (“SEI Renewable”), located at District, Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh, having capacity of 30 MW each (“collectively referred to as SEI Sunshine Phase-

II for the purposes of this appeal).

3. The Respondent No. 1 is the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission ( in short referred as “ Central Commission/CERC”) ; Respondent No. 2, is the Central Transmission Utility of India Limited (in short referred as “CTUIL”), prior to establishment of CTUIL, it worked under Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd ; The Respondent No. 3 is Grid Control of India Limited ( in short referred as “GCIL” ) , which was earlier known as Power System Operation Corporation, and Respondent No. 4 is Western Regional Load Despatch Centre ( in short referred as “WRLDC”), performing its functions under Section 28 of the EA, 2003. The Respondent No. 5, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (in short referred as “POWERGRID”), is an Inter-State Transmission Licensee in terms of Section 40 of the Electricity Act, 2003.

4. Pursuant to a competitive bidding process, the Appellant group companies namely, SEI Ravikiran, SEI Jyotiswaroop and SEI Renewable executed PPAs dated 15.07.2015, each for a capacity of 30 MW; the said projects were part of “SEI Sunshine Phase-I”. Apart from the aforesaid three projects of the Appellant group, there were another three projects of capacity 30 MW each by SEI Sunshine Power Pvt. Ltd., SEI Solarvana Power Pvt. Ltd. and SEI Suraj Renewable Energy Pvt. Ltd., under “SEI Sunshine Phase II, for which three separate PPAs were executed with Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (“TPDDL”). Present Appeal relates to SEI Sunshine Phase-II solar power projects.

5. In order to evacuate 180 MW power from Madhya Pradesh (WR) to Delhi (NR), on 28.07.2015, the Appellant No. 1 applied for LTA with CTUIL/ POWERGRID, which was granted on 29.07.2016, subject to execution of LTA Agreement; the Appellant No. 1 executed LTA Agreement dated 26.08.2016 with POWERGRID/ CTUIL for the aforementioned purpose. As per the said LTA Agreement, the date from which LTA shall be granted is mentioned as 30.09.2016 or availability of Transmission System, whichever is later. On 26.08.2016, the Appellant No. 1 executed Transmission Service Agreement (TSA) with CTUIL. On 03.08.2018, the Appellant group companies executed Supplementary PPAs with TPDDL, whereby the Scheduled Commissioning Date (SCOD) of the Projects were extended to 18 months from the date of the approval in terms of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission's letter dated

21.05.2018 and the SCOD now stood as 21.11.2019.

6. CTUIL/ POWERGRID vide its letter dated 23.01.2019, informed Appellant No. 1 that from 18.11.2019, 90 MW LTA (with respect to SEI sunshine Phase–I) out the total 180 MW LTA was made effective as informed vide letter dated 14.11.2019 issued by CTUIL/ PGCIL and the remaining 90 MW out of 180 MW LTA shall be made effective from 01.03.2020 with the commissioning of remaining 1500 MW capacity of ±800kV, 6000 MW HVDC Bipoles between Champa PS and Kurukshetra PS.

7. On 17.01.2020, the Appellant group companies executed a Second Supplementary PPA with TPDDL, whereby the commissioning of