Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), in a recent order, has said that it was not in a position to grant extension in scheduled commercial operation date (SCOD) in advance, to Rajgarh Transmission Ltd.
Rajgarh Transmission Ltd (RTL), a subsidiary of GR Infraprojects Ltd, had sought declaration of project impediments as “force majeure” and a consequent extension in SCOD for its interstate transmission system (ISTS) project termed as “Transmission system for evacuation of power from RE projects in Rajgarh (2,500 mw) SEZ in Madhya Pradesh.”
In its order, CERC said that since the project has not been completed by the till date and was still under implementation, it would not be appropriate to take any view at this stage on the claimed force majeure issues and extension of SCOD.
Accordingly, CERC has granted RTL liberty to approach the Commission to seek the appropriate relief for force majeure events and “Change in Law” events, after completion of the project.
Rajgarh Transmission Ltd (RTL), in its petition, has cited several factors that have been impeding project progress, and had sought terming these as “force majeure” events. Some of these are:
- Delay in grant of approval by Madhya Pradesh Power Transmission Company Ltd (MPPTCL) regarding usage of a particular tower by RTL for overhead crossing of some existing 132kV and 220kV lines of MPPTCL.
- Mandatory use of D/DD/QD type towers as insisted on by MPPTCL, as opposed to usage of DB/DC/DD type towers as sought by RTL
- Delay in grant of permission for blasting by District Authority for excavation of the hard-rock found underneath the land allotted for construction of a 220/400kV substation, envisaged in the transmission scheme.
- Non-grant of approval by the office of Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Bhopal for laying of overhead 400kV double-circuit Pachora-Bhopal transmission line which will cross Bhopal-Biaora single railway track
Project Background
The transmission system aims to create evacuation infrastructure for 2.5 GW solar potential envisaged in the Rajgarh area of Madhya Pradesh. The project costing around Rs.486 crore was awarded to GR Infraprojects Ltd when it emerged as successful bidder under the TBCB route. Bid process coordinator REC Power Development & Consultancy Ltd (RECPDCL) transferred the project SPV “Rajgarh Transmission Ltd” to GR Infraprojects Ltd on May 30, 2022. By original schedule, the project commissioning date is November 29, 2023 (18 months from the date of transfer of SPV).
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