PSPCL seeks tighter checks on peak-hour power availability declarations
Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has questioned whether the existing framework is sufficient to enforce compliance with the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (CERC) October 5, 2025 suo-motu order on peak-hour power availability declarations.
The issue came up during the latest meeting of the Northern Regional Power Committee’s (NRPC) Commercial Sub-Committee. After considering the matter, the sub-committee decided to retain the current monitoring arrangement, under which Grid Controller of India Limited (Grid-India) tracks compliance and seeks clarifications from generators where required.
The CERC order prohibits generating stations from declaring peak-hour Declared Capacity (DC) lower than off-peak DC, except in cases of forced or partial outages. The direction was issued to ensure that generators do not reduce availability during periods of highest demand.
Compliance mechanism
PSPCL told the sub-committee that the current system is largely dependent on self-compliance by generating stations, with Grid-India carrying out monitoring after declarations have been made.
According to the utility, expecting generating companies to voluntarily forego fixed charge recovery by maintaining higher peak-hour declarations may not always be practical. It noted that any failure to comply with the CERC order could ultimately impact beneficiary states.
To strengthen oversight, PSPCL suggested introducing a structured compliance mechanism. It proposed either automated validation in the Web-Based Energy Scheduling (WBES) platform by linking declared capacity with outage data, or verification by Regional Power Committees (RPCs) during the energy accounting process.
Grid-India informed the sub-committee that it is already tracking instances where peak-hour DC is lower than off-peak DC. The organisation said such cases are compiled every month and communicated to the concerned generating stations through letters seeking explanations. Copies of these communications are also shared with the NRPC Secretariat. According to Grid-India, this process provides an established mechanism for monitoring compliance with the CERC directions across the region.
Committee decision
Following discussions, the Commercial Sub-Committee decided against introducing additional compliance layers and directed Grid-India to continue strict monitoring of generating stations.
The decision means that the existing framework will remain in place, with compliance continuing to be assessed through monthly reviews rather than through automated checks or real-time validation.
As things stand, generating stations will remain subject to post-facto scrutiny under the current mechanism, while the question of whether this approach is sufficient to discourage non-compliance under the existing tariff structure remains open.
The featured photograph is for representation only.
