- (1.) THE petitioner, Kudgi Transmission Limited has filed this petition under Section 14 read with Section 15(1) of the Electricity Act, 2003 (the Act) for grant of transmission licence to undertake the business of establishing, commissioning, operation and maintenance of the "Transmission system required for evacuation of power from Kudgi TPS (3 x 800 MW in Phase -I) of NTPC Limited (hereinafter referred to as "transmission system") on 'build, own, operate and maintain' (BOOM) basis. The transmission system comprises the following elements: The petitioner has submitted that Ministry of Power, Government of India initiated a scheme for development of Independent Transmission Projects through private sector participation for evacuation of power from the generating station and transmission of power from pooling station to other grid stations up to load centers and system strengthening in India. The said projects were to be awarded to developers selected on the basis of tariff based competitive bidding process. Government of India, Ministry of Power, vide its Resolution No. 11.5.2005 -PG(i) dated 17.4.2006 notified the 'Guidelines for encouraging competition in development of Transmission Projects and competitive bidding for Transmission Service' and 'Tariff based competitive bidding guidelines for Transmission Service' (hereinafter referred to as "the Guidelines") under Section 63 of the Act. In accordance with the Guidelines, the REC Transmission Projects Company Limited (RECTPCL) was notified by Government of India, Ministry of Power vide Notification No. 15/1/2011 -Trans, dated 8.10.2012 as the Bid Process Coordinator(BPC) for the purpose of selection of bidder as Transmission Service Provider (TSP) to establish the "Transmission system required for evacuation of power from Kudgi TPS (3 x 800 MW in Phase - I) of NTPC Limited (hereinafter referred to as Project)" through tariff based competitive bidding process.
(2.) REC Transmission Projects Company Limited (RECTPCL) in its capacity as BPC initiated the bid process on 5.12.2012 and completed the process on 30.8.2013 in accordance with the Guidelines. M/s. L and T Infrastructure Developments Projects Limited (L and T IDPL) was selected as the successful bidder having quoted the lowest levellized transmission charge in order to establish the transmission system required for evacuation of power from Kudgi TPS (3 x 800 MW in Phase - I) of NTPC Limited on build, own, operate and maintain basis and to provide transmission service to the following identified long -term transmission customers (LTTCs) of the projects, namely:
(3.) THE petitioner has submitted that the 4 bidders submitted their bids at RfP stage. M/s. Parry and Company carried out the responsiveness check of the non -financial bids in accordance with the conditions of RfP and recommended all 4 bids as responsive for opening of financial bids. The financial bids were open on 29.7.2013 by the Bid Evaluation Committee. As per the Bid Evaluation Report dated 29.7.2013, M/s. L and T Infrastructure Development Company Limited (L and T IDPL) emerged as the successful bidder with the lowest levellized transmission charges of Rs. 1795.8652 million/annum. The Commission after considering the application of the petitioner in the light of the provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003 and the provisions of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Procedure, Terms and Conditions for grant of Transmission Licence and other related matters) Regulations, 2009 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Transmission Licence Regulations') prima facie proposed to grant licence to the petitioner. Relevant para of our order dated 21.11.2013 is extracted as under: 19. ....Considering all the material on record, we are prima facie of the view that the petitioner satisfies the conditions for grant of inter -State transmission licence under Section 15 of the Act read with Transmission Licence Regulations for construction, operation and maintenance of the transmission system as described in para 1 of this order. We, therefore, direct that a public notice under clause (a) of sub -section (5) of Section 15 of the Act be published to invite suggestions or objections to grant of transmission licence aforesaid. The objections or suggestions, if any, be filed by any person before the Commission by 6.12.2013.;