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Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) has decided to challenge the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (CERC) action to impose a penalty of Rs 2.57 crore for overdrawals from the northern grid in the Allahabad High Court. The CERC had penalised the UPPCL for violating the grid code by overdrawals. It had also directed the state’s power utility to deposit the penalty urgently. Earlier, the UPPCL had decided to challenge the CERC order before the appellate tribunal for electricity.

Navneet Sehgal, CMD of the UPPCL, said: “The CERC order is biased and discriminatory. They have singled out Uttar Pradesh while there have been hundreds of such cases when it comes to other states. We will file a petition in the High Court within this week.”

He added the state’s genuine demand for the allocation of additional quota was being ignored. Demand is spiralling in the state, so, the state has to take adequate measures to meet the energy requirements, he claimed.

The CERC, in its order issued on August 26, had cited 257 instances of violation of the grid code by UP from April 13 to May 9. It had imposed penalty at the rate of Rs 1 lakh for each instance of violation. The overdrawal had ranged between 50 mw and 1,000 mw. Though the UPPCL had violated the grid code in May and June, the CERC took cognizance of only the period mentioned by the Northern Region Load Dispatch Centre (NRLDC) in its complaint to the power regulator.

Any withdrawal from the power grid below the frequency of 49.5 megahertz is violation of the gird code, which could damage the grid and affect supply all over the region.

According to Sehgal, there have been instances of overdrawal, but there are certain essential services to which the power supply can never be discontinued. He said: “If NRLDC tells us about overdrawal during peak hours, it takes some time to reduce the load. By the time we reduce the load by cutting power supply, we are told that we have violated the grid 10 times during the period.”

If UPPCL is overdrawing power, then it is due to the Centre which is ignoring the state’s demand for additional power of 700 mw from its discretionary quota, Sehgal claimed. “Uttar Pradesh is reeling under drought but we have already imposed power cuts of 2,000 mw,” he said.

Efforts to procure additional power from other states like 200 mw from Chattisgarh and 100 mw from Gujartat have not been successful as the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd has not given the carriage permission citing congestion in its network, added Sehgal.