TNERC rebuts charges against chief

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) on Wednesday rubbished all allegations of favouritism against its chairman S Kabilan, levelled by the Power Engineers Society of Tamil Nadu (PESOT), a body of electrical engineers.PESOT president S Gandhi had on Tuesday alleged that Kabilan caused a “loss of Rs 6,000 crore” by unduly favouring private players in an abuse of his official position as chief of the regulatory body.TNERC secretary S Gunasekaran rubbished the charges as suppression of facts, misleading and false. “The PESOT has claimed that Rs 6,000 crores was lost by the TNEB due to the judgements of the TNERC. It is not clear on what basis this statement has been made. It is a wild statement not supported by facts.”Gandhi had alleged that Kabilan had granted concessional tariff to the Information Technology companies in TN by tweaking their classification — from ‘commercial’ to ‘industries’. As a result, the companies now pay a reduced tariff, he claimed. “This is causing an annual loss of `250 crore to the TNEB,” he alleged.In its response, the TNERC said the concession was extended following the request of the IT department of the State government and the TNEB. “PESOT has deliberately suppressed these facts to mislead the Press.”Similarly, PESOT charged that the TNERC chief ordered TNEB to supply 315 million units of power to wind mill operators under the lapsed energy category when the State was reeling under power shortage.The verdict of the Commission on this issue was in pursuance of a direction of the Madras HC. “This statement would be a direct contempt of the High Court of Madras,” the TNERC said.Regarding the allegation that wind generators were permitted to bank energy, the TNERC said: “The Commission merely extended the practice adopted by the TNEB since 1986. The order of the Commission on banking has been upheld by the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity. The PESOT did not choose to appeal before the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity.” On the charge that wind generators were given concessional charges in open access, the panel said it was in pursuance of Section 86 of the Electricity Act 2003.