Staff Reporter

Indian power utilities refused to enter into Transmission Services Agreement  with the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited due to the new 'Point of Connection pricing methodology.  Much of the resistance has been directed at the substantial increase in the transmission tariff, following the regulation. Moreover, the charges are still higher for state generators. Orissa and Bihar, for example, are required to pay more while scheduling power from an inter-state generating station located within the state. Resistance has also been expressed over the basis of calculations for the tariff. Private power producers have complained that the PoC calculations are done on the basis of average energy scenario, instead of the required five seasonal scenarios, with peak and off-peak periods. In its defense, CERC has asserted that since it did not receive individual data from the states, it had to resort to using the average energy scenarios, instead. In fact, it claimed that a single PoC rate for the year is easy to comprehend and administer and gives a more stable signal. Utilities have also alleged that the present scenario, where actual PoC rates are converted into slabs, has resulted in cross subsidization. Nonetheless, the power watchdog has defended use of the slab approach, terming it to be a variant of the 'Min-max Fairness' principle, which would enable easy comprehension by the stakeholders as well as provide stability and certainty to the transmission pricing signal.

If the World Bank and an Indian power utility have their way, the Rampur hydropower project in Northern India will increase global CO2 emissions by 15 million tons, at a cost of $164 million to unsuspecting energy consumers in Sweden. The project is a textbook example of how hydropower companies and other investors, with support from the World Bank, are gaming the system of climate finance. Rampur is a 412-megawatts hydropower project on the Satluj River in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (SJVN), an Indian hydropower company originally created by the World Bank, signed an agreement with the local government to implement the project back in 2004. The Indian Prime Minister laid the foundation stone in 2005. The World Bank approved a loan of $400 million for Rampur in 2007. Throughout this process, the hydropower company SJVN assured the public and its lenders that the scheme was a "least cost" project and would remain financially viable even under adverse hydrological conditions. At no time did it indicate that the project depended on carbon credits to go forward. Several years into project construction, t

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