CERC directs Haryana, Punjab to cut power over drawl
V K Gupta14 July, 2012
CERC has asked power utilities in northern region not to overdraw power at low frequency which may lead to grid failure.
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IN THE wake of rampant over drawl by Haryana and Punjab from the northern grid, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has directed the states to comply with the provisions of grid code and cutting over drawls at low frequency.

CERC has directed that it shall be the personal responsibility of the officers in overall charge of the State Transmission Utilities/ State Load Dispatch centres to ensure the compliance of the directions and non-compliance of the directions in any form will be viewed seriously and appropriate actions under provisions of the Act shall be taken.

Northern Regional Load Dispatch Centre has petitioned CERC that Haryana and Punjab were overdrawing from the grid under ‘Unscheduled Interchange’ and the daily over drawl by the these states has been significantly high when the frequency of the NEW grid remained below 49.5 Hz.

As per CERC notice, Haryana’s over drawal was maximum in Northern Region and was 51% more than the scheduled drawl for first three months of year. Haryana had relied heavily on the over drawl to meet its capacity/energy requirements.

Out of 63 time blocks when the system frequency was less than 49.5 Hz the Haryana overdrew in 52 time blocks and Punjab 31 times. NRLDC issued more than 110 messages to Haryana and 55 messages to Punjab to maintain grid discipline. In May Haryana on an average overdrew 90 lac units daily and on number of days it exceeded 200 lac units.

Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Ltd. (HVPNL) in its reply submits that the over drawl during the period in question was mainly due to forced outages of the State sector generating units. It has also been submitted that HVPNL forwarded the messages received from NRLDC to the Distribution Companies and prayed that the Distribution Companies should also be made respondents in present case.

The other state utilities are yet to make submission in the case. The final hearing in the case will be on August 14.