BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa High Court has directed the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) to hear the Gridco application seeking power from Vedanta Limited and pass an order as per law.
Responding to the Gridco petition challenging the January 25, 2022 order of OERC, a division bench of the High Court comprising Justice CR Dash and Justice Savitri Ratho said if any application for supply of power by Vedanta to the petitioner is filed before the OERC, interim order be passed in accordance with law by the authority concerned within two weeks from the date of filing the interim application.
In its petition, Gridco requested the High Court to direct Vedanta to resume power supply for the quarter of January-March, 2022 forthwith as per Para 30 (b) and (f) of the October 5, 2021 order of OERC.
Since Gridco has sought review of the OERC order converting second unit of Vedanta’s Jharsuguda power plant (4X600 MW) from independent power plant (IP) to captive generating plant (CGP), the High Court said, “It would be preposterous at this stage to entertain this writ petition.”
In view of the High Court order, Gridco will file a fresh application before OERC seeking resumption of power by Vedanta to resume power supply to the State for the quarter of January-March, 2022 as per the commission’s October 5, 2021 order.
Even as the review petition is pending for over three months, the commission is yet to take up the case. The commission had referred to the review petition in its January 25 order while declaring Gridco’s application “ineffectual” on the ground that the requisition application of the power trading utility to Vedanta for resumption of power supply for the first quarter of 2022 was delayed by a day.