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`ABT system could have averted NTPC-Bengal row'

Indrani Dutta

KOLKATA, July 11

HAD the availability-based tariff (ABT) system been in place, it would have, in all probability, prevented the sort of situation that arose on July 9, when the eastern region found itself on the verge of a grid collapse.

Power sector sources told Business Line that, in a self-regulatory system of power tariff settlement such as the ABT, neither would the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) have drastically curtailed its output in such an abrupt manner nor would the West Bengal Government have cut its drawal below the contracted levels.

``Under the system of paying penalty for unscheduled interchange (UI), each party would have had to pay a penalty since such interchange disturbed grid discipline'', sources said.

During the reduction in power supply by the eastern region stations of the NTPC since July 9, frequency had once fallen to a level of 47.7 -- much below the acceptable band of 49-51 cycles per second.

Under the ABT system, evolved and notified by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission in 2000, a three-part tariff system was introduced for the Central sector power stations, replacing the existing two-part system.

Under this scheme of things, tariff had three components: the fixed charge -- i.e. the capacity charge, which was fixed on entitlements; the energy charge, which was based on scheduled drawals; and the UI, which was linked with unscheduled drawals. The t hird element was the part that was supposed to improve grid discipline.

However, although the system was supposed to be in place all over the country -- beginning with the southern region on April 1 and followed by the eastern region a month later -- it is yet to be functional. The system has run into legal problems in the S outh, where the TNEB and the APSEB have gone to their respective High Courts.

In the East, after being launched on May 1, the system fell through as the eastern region constituents maintained that, with the Eastern Regional Electricity Board having links with the South, there could be legal problems regarding accounting. There are court injunctions against it in the South.

Pointing out that this need not have been the stand of the EREB constituents, sources said the system of accounting could still have been followed, even if only on paper, making it possible to implement the new system once the legal problems were out of the way.

In this context, sources said that between May 1 and 24, when the ABT was followed in the eastern region, frequency was good. The ``jungle raj'' returned as soon as some constituents started voicing their opposition to the ABT.

``ABT makes constituents accountable and brings efficiency into operations'', sources said. While no one has any alternative to offer, some constituents were finding flaws in the ABT, although the system was the outcome of protracted discussions over the last decade.