- (1.) THE petitioner has made the following prayers, namely - - a) Approve the Fees and charges for the communication system covered under this petition; b) Approve the reimbursement of expenditure by the beneficiaries towards any other expenditure (if any) in relation to the filing of petition and petition filing fee; c) Allow the petitioner to bill and adjust impact on Interest on Loan due to change in Interest rate on account of floating rate of interest applicable during 2009 -14 period, if any, from the respondent; d) Allow the petitioner to bill and recover Service Tax on transmission charges separately from the respondents, if at any time exemption from service tax is withdrawn and transmission is notified as a taxable service; e) Allow the petitioner to bill and recover license fee separately from the respondents; f) Allow to recover the shortfall or refund the excess Annual Fixed Charges, on account of Return on Equity due to change in applicable Minimum Alternate/Corporate Income Tax rate as per the Income Tax Act, 1961 (as amended from time to time) of the respective financial year directly from the beneficiaries; g) Allow the petitioner to bill and recover the Charges, to be shared for using the communication system by the transmission license as per Commission's order 8.12.2011 in Petition No. 68/2010, from the long term customers (DIC Designated ISTS customer); h) As communication system of NLDC has been retained by the petitioner as per Satnam Singh Committee recommendations and in view of POSOCO letter dated 24.10.2011, the lease charges for dark fibres awarded to NLDC (POSOCO) may please be passed on to the petitioner; and i) Allow provisional tariff. The petitioner who was earlier operating the Regional Load Despatch Centres (RLDCs) devised a scheme called the Unified Load Despatch and Communication Scheme with the objective of strengthening the load despatch infrastructure and augmenting communication system for efficient discharge of load despatch functions.
(2.) MINISTRY of Power under its notification dated 2.3.2005 constituted the National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC), to discharge the following functions, namely: - - (a) supervision over the Regional Load Despatch Centres; (b) scheduling and despatch of electricity over inter -regional links in accordance with grid standards specified by the Authority and grid code specified by Central Commission in coordination with Regional Load Despatch Centres; (c) coordination with Regional Load Despatch Centres for achieving maximum economy and efficiency in the operation of National Grid; (d) monitoring of operations and grid security of the National Grid; (e) supervision and control over the inter -regional links as may be required for ensuring stability of the power system under its control; (f) coordination with Regional Power Committees for regional outage schedule in the national perspective to ensure optimal utilization of power resources; (g) coordination with Regional Load Despatch Centres for the energy accounting of inter -regional exchange of power; (h) coordination for restoration of synchronous operation of national grid with Regional Load Despatch Centres; (i) coordination for trans -national exchange of power; (j) providing operational feedback for national grid planning to the Authority and the Central Transmission Utility; (k) levy and collection of such fee and charges from the generating companies or licensees involved in the power system, as may be specified by the Central Commission; and (l) dissemination of information relating to operations of transmission system in accordance with directions or regulations issued by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and the Central Government from time to time. The administrative approval and expenditure sanction for establishment for NLDC was accorded by Ministry of Power, vide letter dated 24.5.2005 at an estimated cost of Rs. 4496 lakh, including IDC of Rs. 177 lakh at 4th quarter, 2004 price level. The final scope of work under NLDC scheme is as follows: - - (i) Establishment of control centre at New Delhi with backup at ERLDC Kolkata. (ii) Interface equipment like routers and hub for data acquisition from RLDCs at RLDCs and NLDC/Backup NLDC. (iii) Communication Systems for data, voice and fax between RLDCs, NLDC and Backup NLDC through dedicated wideband networks on fibre optics. (iv) Auxiliary power supply system. (v) Other infrastructural facilities such as air -conditioning, fire -fighting, DG set construction/renovation of buildings, etc.
(3.) AS per the original project approval letter dated 24.5.2005, the NLDC scheme was scheduled to be commissioned within 36 months from the date of approval, i.e. by June, 2008. However, the NLDC scheme was declared under commercial operational on 1.4.2009, with delay of nine months.;