Appendix – 2018 Draft EA2003 Amendments Line Item Comments and Suggestions Rahul Tongia and Geetika Gupta, Brookings India
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Appendix – 2018 Draft EA2003 Amendments Line Item comments and suggestions Rahul Tongia and Geetika Gupta, Brookings India No. 42/6/2011-R&R (Vol-Vlll) Government of India Ministry of Power *** Shram Shakti Bhawan, Rafi Marg, th New Delhi, 7 September , 2018 To 1. Chairperson , Central Electricity Authority, New Delhi. 2. Principal Secretary/Secretary(Energy) , All State Governments/UTs. 3. Registrar, Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, New Delhi. 4. Secretary, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, New Delhi. 5. Secretaries, All SERCs/JERCs. 6. Chairman/CMDs for all PSUs under administrative control of Ministry of Power. 7. CMDs/MDs of DISCOMs/GENCOs/TRANSCOs of all State Governments . 8. DG, Association of Power Producers, New Delhi. 9. President, FICCI, Federation House, Tansen Marg, New Delhi. 10. Head, Prayas (Energy Group), Pune. Subject: Proposed amendment to Electricity Act, 2003 - regarding. Sir/Madam , I am directed to say that the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2014 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 19.12.2014. The Bill was subsequently referred to the Standing Committee on Energy for examination and report. The Committee had submitted its report on 7.5.2015 . Based on the observations/recommendations of the Standing Committee, further consultation with State Governments/UTs held in September, 2015 and deliberations at different levels thereafter some more amendments have been proposed. 2. A revised proposal for amendment in Electricity Act, 2003 is enclosed with the request to provide your comments , if any, to this Ministry within 45 days from the date of this letter. The comments may also be emailed at sandeep [email protected] and debranjan. chattopad hyay@nic .in. Yours faithfully, Encl: As above (D. Chattopadhyay) Under Secretary to the Government of India Tel: 2373 0265 Copy to: i) All Joint Secretaries/Economic Adviser, Ministry of Power. ii) PS to Hon'ble Minister, PPS to Secretary (Power) , PPS to AS(R&R), PS to Chief Engineer(R&R) , PS to Director (R&R) iii) lncharge, NIC, Ministry of Power with the request to upload this document on the website of Ministry of Power under heading 'Current Notices'. (b) (As on 07.09.2018) Draft for stakeholder consultation ELECTRICITY ACT, 2003 Preamble 1 - ELECTRICITY ACT, 2003 THE ELECTRICITY ACT, 2003 [Act, No. 36 of 2003] [2nd June, 2003] PREAMBLE An Act to consolidate the laws relating to generation, transmission, distribution, supply, trading and use of electricity and generally for taking measures conducive to development of electricity industry, promoting competition therein, protecting interest of consumers and supply of electricity to all areas, rationalisation of electricity tariff, ensuring transparent policies regarding subsidies, promotion of energy security, promotion of efficient and environmentally benign policies, constitution of Central Electricity Authority, Regulatory Commissions and establishment of Appellate Tribunal and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. BE it enacted by Parliament in the Fifty- fourth Sixty-Eighth Year of the Republic of India as follows: -- Part I - PRELIMINARY Section 1 - Short title, extent and commencement (1) This Act may be called the Electricity Act, 2003 (Amendment) Act 2018. (2) It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir. (3) It shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification, appoint: Provided that different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act and any reference in any such provision to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a reference to the coming into force of that provision. Section 2 - Definitions Draft Amendments to Electricity Act, 2003 (September 2018) Page 1 In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, -- (1) "Appellate Tribunal" means the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity Energy established under section 110; (1A) “ancillary support”, in relation to power system or grid operation, means the support required, by the load despatch centres, for the power system or grid operation for maintaining power quality, reliability and security of the grid. (2) "appointed date" means such date as the Central Government may, by notification, appoint; (3) "area of supply” means the area within which a distribution licensee till the effective date of transfer scheme notified under section 131 A or supply licensee, is authorised by his licence to supply electricity; (3A) “area of distribution” means the area within which a distribution licensee is authorised by his licence to distribute electricity; (4) "Appropriate Commission” means the Central Regulatory Commission referred to in sub-section (1) of section 76 or the State Regulatory Commission referred to in section 82 or the Joint Commission referred to in section 83, as the case may be ; (5) "Appropriate Government" means, - (a) the Central Government, - (i) in respect of a generating company wholly or partly owned by it; (ii) in relation to any inter-State generation, transmission, trading or supply of electricity and with respect to any mines, oil-fields, railways, national highways, airports, telegraphs, broadcasting stations and any works of defence, dockyard, nuclear power installations; (iii) in respect of National Load Despatch Centre; and Regional Load Despatch Centre; (iv) in relation to any works or electric installation belonging to it or under its control ; (b) in any other case, the State Government, having jurisdiction under this Act; (6) “Authority “means the Central Electricity Authority referred to in sub-section(1) of section 70; Draft Amendments to Electricity Act, 2003 (September 2018) Page 2 (7) "Board" means, a State Electricity Board, constituted before the commencement of this Act, under sub-section (I) of section 5 of the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948; (8) "Captive generating plant" means a power plant set up by any person to generate electricity primarily for his own use and includes a power plant set up by any co-operative society or association of persons for generating electricity primarily for use of members of such co-operative society or association subject to such other conditions as may be prescribed by the Central Government from time to time; (9) "Central Commission" means the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission referred to in sub-section (1) of section 76; (10) "Central Transmission Utility" means any Government company which the Central Government may notify under sub-section (1) of section 38; (11) "Chairperson" means the Chairperson of the Authority or Appropriate Commission or the Appellate Tribunal as the case may be; (12) "Cogeneration" means a process which simultaneously produces two or more forms of useful energy (including electricity) as specified by the Authority; (13) "company" means a company formed and registered under the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956) or Companies Act, 2013(18 of 2013), as the case may be and includes any body corporate under a Central, State or Provincial Act; (14) "conservation" means any reduction in consumption of electricity as a result of increase in the efficiency in supply and use of electricity; (15) "consumer" means any person who is supplied with electricity for his own use by a licensee or the Government or by any other person engaged in the business of supplying electricity to the public under this Act or any other law for the time being in force and includes any person whose premises are for the time being connected for the purpose of receiving electricity with the works of a licensee, the Government or such other person, as the case may be; (15A) “decentralised distributed generation” means electricity generation from wind, small hydro, solar, biomass, biogas, bio fuel, any kind of waste including municipal and solid waste, geothermal, hybrid power system or such other sources as may be notified by the Central Government from time to time for end use at or near the place of generation; Draft Amendments to Electricity Act, 2003 (September 2018) Page 3 (16) "dedicated transmission lines" means any radial electric supply-line for point to point transmission which are is required for the purpose of connecting electric lines or electric plants of a captive generating plant referred to in section 9 or generating station referred to in section 10 to any transmission lines or distribution system or sub-stations or switching station or any other captive Generating Plant or generating stations, or the load centre, as the case may be, dedicated for evacuating the electricity generated from such Captive Power Plant or Generating Station and shall not be used for any other purpose subject to the condition that such line shall not form a loop with the grid and shall not be shared except with the prior approval of the Appropriate Commission, except where authorized for additional connections for redundancy purposes or improved transmission; Commented [RT1]: A single interconnect may not be desirable for some more critical plants (17) "distribution licensee" means a licensee authorised to operate and maintain a distribution system for supplying enabling supply of electricity to the consumers in his area of supply distribution and shall be deemed supply licensee till transfer scheme is notified as provided in Section 131A of this Act; (17A) “distribution” means the conveyance of electricity by use of distribution system and the expression “distribute” shall be construed accordingly; (18) "distributing main" means the portion of any main with which a service line is,