KCR takes strong objections to power bill

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the Draft Electricity Amendment Bill, 2020, that goes against the spirit of federal polity since it seeks to snatch away powers of the State on various counts.

In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, Chandrashekhar Rao, raising strong objections to the provisions in the proposed bill, said it would have an adverse impact directly on the management of State Electricity utilities. He listed out the various objectionable provisions including the authority to appoint State Electricity Regulatory Commission by a selection committee constituted by the Union government, making National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC) all powerful with regard to power scheduling, allowing open access and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of subsidy to beneficiaries, among others.

“We strongly oppose such tendencies where the Government of India or the Parliament enact laws which have a direct and major influence on the functioning of the State government, just because a particular subject is in the concurrent list,” the Chief Minister pointed out.

He further pointed out that any National Renewable Energy Policy should be formulated with explicit consent of the State governments, and not merely in consultation with the State



governments. Each State in India has its unique situations like potential for hydro power, wind power, solar power and land availability, among other factors. As such, States should have the flexibility to determine within the broad policy at the national level without penal provisions.

The Chief Minister said the proposed amendment bill makes the NLDC all powerful with regard to scheduling of power throughout the country. Currently, merit order dispatch of energy is being implemented by Telangana State. “Though Grid discipline is very important, it is not advisable to entrust NLDC with additional powers, which will result in backing down State Thermal units,” he observed.

The State units will not be able to compete with Central generating stations. The cost of generation of the Central units such as NTPC, NHPC etc will be less and get priority in merit order dispatch causing loss to the State generating companies. Therefore, intra-State transmission should be left to the SLDC only. Further the proposed amendment seeks to give powers to NLDC to enforce payments security etc. Such commercial aspects should be left to the State Regulatory Commissions and civil courts as is being done currently, the Chief Minister said, adding that NLDC should deal only with technical issues like scheduling, grid stability etc.