BHUBANESWAR: IT has nearly been two-and-half years, but the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) still continues to function in virtual mode when even the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (ATE), Orissa High Court and the Supreme Court has resumed physical hearings from April.
The quasi-judicial body which is out of bounds for the general public since April 2020 due to Covid restrictions has already passed tariff orders for 2021-22 and 2022-23. The first public hearing of applications for determination of annual revenue requirement and tariff power generators, transmission and distribution utilities was done in virtual mode, while the public hearing for the current financial happened in hybrid mode.
The Commission is yet to take a call on holding physical hearings of cases when the appellate tribunal reverted to the physical mode of hearing from July 1, 2022, after extending the virtual mode of hearing up to May 31, 2022.
“As the Supreme Court and High Court of Delhi have switched to a physical mode of functioning, there being some control over the spread of Covid-19, this Tribunal has resolved in its meeting held on May 18, 2022, to revert to a physical mode of functioning of APTEL from July 1, 2022,” said an ATE notification issued on May 24.
In the last week of January this year, the Orissa High Court issued an order for resuming the physical mode of hearing along with subordinate courts and tribunals, from February 15 with an option for the lawyers to either appear physically or virtually. Now all the courts of the State are functioning normally, OERC being the only exception. The Supreme Court went back to a full physical hearing on April 4 after a gap of two years.
The four distribution companies are going to file applications for true-up claims (the expenditure incurred by them over and above the annual revenue requirement (ARR) approved by the commission for the last fiscal), in the first week of October. This will be followed by the filing of ARR and tariff applications for 2023-24 in November's second week.
Many in the power sector feel that the Commission should revert to the physical mode of hearing without further delay in view of the difficulties faced by petitioners and respondents during the virtual mode of hearings.OERC director (Regulatory Affairs), Priyabrat Patnaik said a decision on this matter be taken soon.