Cuts Institute Fr Regulation & Competition (Circ) & Rachna Management Consultants & Studies (P) Ltd. Presents Three Day Workshop On Annual Revenue Requirement (Arr) And Annual Performance Requirement (Apr) June 26-28, 2014

Aims and Objectives
Electricity is central in achieving economic, social and environmental objectives of sustainable human development. In the present age, electricity has emerged as the most crucial and critical input for sustaining the process of economic as well as social development. Development of different sectors of economy is not possible without matching developments of the electricity sector. Although, the Indian Power sector has achieved substantial growth during post-independence period, the sector has been ailing from serious functional problems during the past few decades.

Keeping in mind the roles and responsibilities of the central/state electricity regulatory commissions regarding determination of tariff, mechanisms of revenue requirement CIRC and RMCS successfully organised a Workshop on Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) and Annual Performance Review (APR) at Hotel Vikram from 26th June 2014 to 28th June 2014. This workshop aimed at educating and familiarising the technical personnel, in the utilities and the regulatory commissions, with the process of drafting and evaluating Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) and Annual Performance Review (APR) with requirements and stipulations including recent developments in the electricity sector.

Proceedings
We were very fortunate to have with us experts from electricity sector of various states with in-depth knowledge of electricity sector, its regulation and working mechanisms. The programme began with a welcome address by Mr Arun Talwar, Chief Operating Officer, CIRC who expressed his gratitude for everyone taking out time to be a part of this intellectual exercise. Following the inaugural address, Shri Nitin Desai, President Governing Council, CIRC & Former under Secretary General of UN, enlightened the participants with a brief introduction of Indian electricity sector and the issues related to its tariff determination, revenue realisations, and others. He stressed on the requirement of building internal capacity of professionals working in public sector for revival of electricity sector. The workshop was spread over a period of three days, for a better understanding and detail discussions on developments and loopholes of electricity sector, case studies and implications. There was a lively panel discussion accompanied by concluding remarks and valedictory address by Shri Desh Deepak Verma, Chairman UP Electricity Regulatory Commission, Lucknow and a vote of thanks by Ms. Arvinder Kaur, Assistant Director, CIRC.

DAY 1: June 26, 2014
Session 1: Power Sector in India and Rationale if restructuring (By: Shri V.P Raja, Former Chairperson, MERC, Mumbai)
Shri V.P Raja began his session by discussing about the level of power availability in India and enriched the knowledge of participants by discussing about various land settlement systems: Zamindari System, Ryotwari System and Mahalwari System, drawing upon how and to what extent tenants were exploited under different systems. He also highlighted that the infrastructure development in India during British rule was based on excessive surplus and extraction from agriculture in form of tax and land revenue. Shri Raja has also drawn insight about aims and objectives of various Five Year Plans implemented in India till date, discussed about need for development of industrial sector, need for becoming self-reliant in food during that period; altogether which led to development of Nehruvian Mahanolobis Model.

In later part of his session, he discussed about wars that India fought in between 1962 and 1971 and lessons learnt from them. For ex: during period 1963 to 1966, India faced consecutive monsoon failure, high imports of wheat from US, emergence of PL 480. Further, he also elaborated on the concept of: Stabilisation and structural adjustment, also discussed about some successful cases of how overtime competition has increased in sectors such as Telecom, Civil Aviation, Broadcasting and Television etc.

Finally, concluding his session he professed that electricity is a concurrent subject, Central and State government as well as consumers, producers are important players and thus there is a need for each and every player to clearly understand that EA 2003 because roles are prescribed for each and every player. And thus to satisfy demand of all players there is a need for effective management and to bring down tariffs competition needs to be brought in the electricity sector.

Session 2: Financial Principles of ARR (By: Shri M Palaniappan- Director, ABPS)
Mr Palaniappan spoke on financial principles concerned with Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR). During his session, he has drawn insights about the details to be submitted along ARR and tariff petition, issue of capital expenditure vs capitalisation, normative debt-equity ratio (70:30), concept of depreciation, MERC tariff regulation 2005, interest on working capital, and various other topics. The main stress was given to issue of debt-equity ratio, where he also pointed out that if actual equity deployed is than 30 percent of the cost of capitalisation asset, the actual equity shall be considered for determination of tariff. In case of retirement or replacement of assets, equity capital approved shall be reduced to extent of 30 percent, and loan capital shall be reduced to extent of 70 percent of Original Capital Cost of Replaced Asset (OCRA). Further, he cleared the thin line between Return on Equity and Return on Capital employed, by stating that ROE is allowed on equity invested in business at specified rate and is easy to compute, whereas on contrary ROCE is complicated to compute and is allowed on total capital employed including debt and equity.

Session 3: General Principles of MYT (By: Shri M Palaniappan- Director, ABPS)
Continuing with what he discussed in in previous session, Mr Palaniappan initiated this session by discussing about public generators and private generators of power, controllable and uncontrollable factors, drawing upon section 62, section 63, section 86(1)(a) of EA 2003. Further, he discussed about the MYT framework, its elements and its major objectives/ aims, annual filing vs MYT approach with reference to MERC, In the end, he has also drawn insights on the order writing tips, differentiated between briefing orders and speaking orders, tariff orders and other orders.

Session 5: Role and Importance of the Regulator (By- Shri V.P Raja, Former Chairperson, MERC, Mumbai)
Pursuant to his previous session, Shri Raja addressed following questions:
– What are the broad directions to achieve the target of competitive energy market?
– Where are we today as compared to where we aspire to be?
– How can we bring competition in electricity?
He began his session by distinguishing between two forms of market- Perfect Competition and Monopoly on the basis of features such as number of buyers and sellers, extent to determine prices, information about market etc. He further emphasised that from consumers point of view all monopolies are bad, but in general private sector monopolies are much worse that public sector monopolies. By citing various examples from diffe5rent states such as of telecom sector, electricity meters and various others, he professed that there is a need to move away from monopoly and shift towards perfect competition, but given the conditions of Indian electricity sector a direct move to perfectly competitive market would not be possible, thus steps needs to be taken to first move from monopoly structure to another form of market known as Oligopoly (less competitive than perfect competition but much more competitive than monopoly). Finally he conclude his session by saying that the entire game in electricity sector is to go from administered price system of monopoly to market driven system to perfect competition.

Thus to achieve perfect competition in electricity sector, at first there is a need to reduce the power of monopoly producers/suppliers , this can be done by a move in favour of first forming an oligopoly in the sector which time by time will ensure competition in the sector. Once, the competition is attained then consumers can be satisfied because competition leads to lowering down of prices and thus increasing the satisfaction of consumers.

Day 2: June, 27 2014
Session 1: The Procedure for determination of tariff for Generation(By- Shri Suresh Gehani, Regulatory Expert & Consultant, ABPS)
The first session of second day of the workshop was taken by Mr Gehani, in which he enlightened the candidates with the process for determination of ARR for Generation Business with reference to Section 62 and Section 63 of EA 2003. While discussing about the tariff determination, the speaker stressed on the need for effective and timely determination of tariff by avoiding delays at eight staged process of determination.

In the second half of the session, the speaker differentiated between Single part versus Two Part Tariff followed by comparison of CERC Tariff Regulation 2004 and 2014, principles for determination of ARR/ MYT Principles/ MYT Regulation etc. Finally, to conclude the session, the speaker discussed case study of Punjab.

Session 2: Issues concerning Availability Based Tariff (By Ms. Anjuli Chandra, Chief Engineer, Power System &Project Monitoring, Central Electricity Authority, New Delhi)
After drawing upon the need for ABT, during second half of the session, the speaker discussed about the components of the ABT-Capacity Charge (for payment of fixed cost), Energy Charge (for payment of variable cost) and Unscheduled Interchange (adjustment for deviations), where Unscheduled Interchange (UI) for generating stations is equal to its total actual generation minus its scheduled generation and UI for beneficiary equals to its total actual drawals minus its total scheduled drawals. In the end, Deviation Settlement Mechanism and Related Matters Regulations, 2014 was discusses, where main points were such as change in step size of frequency from 0.02 Hz to 0.01Hz, narrowing of operational frequency band (49090 to 50.05Hz), capping deviation charges, imposition of additional surcharge beyond specified limits and various other points were discussed.

Session 3: Determination of ARR for Distribution Business (By-Shri Prashant Kumar, Joint Director (Tariff and Finance), DERC, New Delhi
He began his session by discussing about the evolution of Indian electricity sector, snapshot of IEA 1910, Electricity Supply Act, 1948 and ERC Act 1998. Further on he got into the intricacies of EA 2003, compared industry structure before and after EA 2003, and further on discussed topics such as: Provisions related to T&D (Licence) in EA 2003, Tariff provisions under EA 2003,where the speaker pointed out that tariff provisions have to be made in accordance with section 61 of EA 2003 and these cannot be challenged before APTEL, and appeal lies only before HC and SC. Further on discussions were made on principles for tariff determination- Multi-Year tariff framework, controllable and uncontrollable factors, operational norms, expenses and return norms etc.

In second half of the session, the speaker discussed about ROE vs ROCE (discussed complete process of calculation of ROE and ROCE using various examples), including following:

Cross Subsidy: Cross subsidy is a mechanism to provide assistance to those consumers who have lesser paying capacity. Electricity Act (EA 2003) makes it clear that cross-subsidies exist and have to be eliminated over a period of time – period to be specified by ERC.

Single Part Tariff vs Two Part Tariff: There is a big debate among the consumers and it is also being raised during the public hearings that whether tariff should be one part or two part. In a single-part tariff (energy/variable charges), the revenue depends entirely on the consumption, whereas two part tariff includes – Fixed/Demand charges, Energy charges. Distribution utility prefers two part tariff whereas consumers prefers single tariff. Two part tariff assures fund for normal operation of the utilities and it is not dependent on sales. Single tariff is preferred by consumers because is based on the consumption and if there is no consumption in any period there will not be any obligation for payment.

FPA/PPAC Charges: Tariff is being determined based on the past cost and revenue requirement, the cost during the ensuing year may vary more than the past trends. To offset the variation in the projected cost in ARR and actual cost incurred the concept of Fuel price cost adjustment (FPA)/ Power Purchase Adjustment Cost) has been introduced by the Regulatory Commissions. Recently Hon’ble APTEL has also issued a direction under section 121 of The Electricity Act, 2003 for all the state regulatory commissions to provide FPA/PPAC and avoid the creation of revenue gap/regulatory asset.

Regulatory Asset: Regulatory Asset/ Revenue Gap is the deficit between the actual cost incurred (ARR) and the revenue realized from the tariff of the same period. National tariff policy states that creation of Revenue Gap may be avoided in normal circumstances. If it is necessary to create then it should be amortized within three years or during the control period
Types of Regulations: Under this the speaker discussed about two types of regulations such as Cost Plus Regulations and Performance Based Regulations (PBR) discussing how these regulations work and what are their merits and demerits.

Finally Mr. Kumar concluded his session by stating that although some of the States have implemented Multi Year Tariff Framework which is not full-fledged MYT Framework but the principles for MYT with sharing of gains and losses have been incorporated. However, Tariff is determined on annual basis. Additionally, approach followed in the Country today is hybrid of Cost Plus and Performance Based Regulation.

Session 4: Panel Discussion on “Regulatory Issues in the Emerging Indian Economy”
Pursuant to sessions on power sector in India, need for its restructuring Indian electricity sector, tariff determination, issues concerning to ABT and distribution business, this session focused on ‘Regulatory issues in the emerging Indian Economy’. The discussion was chaired by Shri H.L Bajaj with Shri V.P Raja, Shri M.R.S Murthy, Shri P.D Sudhakar, Shri Buddy Rangandharn being panel members for the session.

Shri H.L Bajaj (Former Member APTEL & Ex Chairman CEA and Ex. CMD NTPC) opened the session by introducing the theme. He highlighted that Power sector is important for development of any economy. In India there are many things related to power sector that are under-going wrong way leading to problem of shortage of electricity, financial burden and losses and to overcome all these problems large amount of investment is needed to be brought into the sector. Given the limited capacity of Indian government to provide investment funds for revival, investments needs to be attracted from private and other players for which predictability, timely return etc. needs to be ensured. Apart from this, Shri Bajaj discussed two main issues: Issue of Subsidies-Cross subsidisation and Competition and Issue related to creation of regulatory assets. He professed that completion needs to be brought into electricity sector and for that cost of procurement, efficiency of personnel play main role. As far as issue of regulatory asset is concerned, he advocated that regulatory assets are to be used in rarest of rare circumstances such as in case of cyclones etc.

After enlightening the participants with his views, Shri H.L Bajaj opened the session to other panellists.

Panel Member 1: Shri V.P Raja (Former Chairman, MERC)
Accelerated growth of the generation capacity sector is essential to meet the estimated growth in demand. Adequacy of generation is also essential for efficient functioning of power markets. Given the deficiency of supply to meet the growing demand of Indian population, Shri Raja advocated that there is a need to produce a lot more electricity because even today one-third of the Indian population do not have access to electricity and with coming years the demand will grow exponentially. Thus, challenges need to overcome as soon as possible. Apart from this, he also stated that today climate change has also been emerging as an important issue, because changes in temperature, precipitation, sea level, and the frequency and severity of extreme events will likely affect how much energy is produced, delivered, and consumed. He further on professed that for Indian economy energy mix has to change slowly in favour of more electricity, more power, greater energy security and reduction in growth of carbon di-oxide in the environment. In the end, he marked out as point stating that for countries like India, Solar energy is better in terms of scheduled availability than wind.

Panel Member 2: M.R.S Murthy (Chairman, KERC)
Mr Murthy addressed need for reconciling two apparent issues- Good return to investors and Low tariff to consumers. He also pointed out that achieving twin objective will be a challenge for commission of individual state as well as centre. In order to move towards achieving these objectives one way could be to reduce the level of losses in energy sector, which can be used to finance both better returns and stabilise or lower down the tariffs. Further on he also pointed out that there are three majors problems related to Indian power sector- (i) Network issues (ii) Huge inefficiency in management (iii) No support to utility to curb theft of power, solutions to all these problems lies as technical, political as well as managerial level.

Panel Member 3: Shri P.D Sudhakar (Chairman DERC)
Shri Sudhakar pointed out that Section 63 of EA 2003 has failed till date because it has not live up to the expectations, thus creating a long term consistent policy is a major issue for Indian economy. Further, he pointed out that investments needs to be catered to cost reduction, open access needs to be provided and independence of regulators needs to preserved and protected.

Panel Member 4: Shri Buddy Rangandharn (Advocate, New Delhi)
Shri Rangandharn also discussed some important points on the same line. National electricity policy was drafted in Delhi and we are so close to Himachal Pradesh which has cheaper sources of hydro power and other states with excess of other power. Price of electricity differ from state to state for example electricity in Gujarat is much cheaper than that in Delhi, also there are difference in level of tariffs charged from consumers.

Thus, discussing on the same line as other panellists, Shri Rangandharn pointed that the difference in level of tariff charged and another issue. Regulator role in emerging economy is to maintain consistency of quality, regulatory balance, live up to expectations of peoples’ demand. Problem is how to have a long term consistent policy, one way is to have MYT which some commission have put in place and others are in move to put it. Improve forecasting techniques, have consistency overtime which build investor confidence which will boost investments and help to overcome major problems.

DAY 3: June 28, 2014
Session 1: Electricity Purchase and Procurement (Power Purchase Agreements) (By: Shri Suresh Gehani, Regulatory Expert & Consultant, ABPS)
The first session of the day was presented by Mr Suresh Gehani, Regulatory Expert & Consultant, ABPS Infra. He started with briefing about electricity purchase and procurement regime prior to 1991, wherein the entities involved in power purchase were mostly public sector undertakings (PSUs) and therefore the power purchase agreements (PPAs) so signed were brief and run into few pages only. However as with time, these PPAs evolved. Private players were getting into electricity sector and the need was realised for having more defined and exhaustive PPAs in order to circumvent future litigations amongst the signatories of such PPAs.

He further deliberated upon the role of State Electricity Commissions as bestowed under Section 62, 63 and 83 of the Electricity Act, 2003 and how PPAs may be regulated by respective State Commissions. While discussing Section 62 and Section 63 of the Act, the participants raised concern that if these two sections are having ‘mandatory’ significance on State Commissions and if State Commissions can actually regulate individual PPAs. Mr Gehani mentioned that the Act in its preamble and language of the two sections makes the interpretation clear, that is, the use of word ‘shall’ makes the function as enshrined under Section 83 a mandate and therefore PPAs can be regulated. However these PPAs can only be regulated in accordance with the guidelines as provided for Determination of Tariff by Bidding Process for Procurement of Power by Distribution Licensee, guidelines issued by Ministry of Power, Government of India in 2005. He highlighted the case study of North Delhi Power Ltd. (NDPL) and Maithon Power Ltd. (MPL) in this regard.

He then elaborated types of PPAs according to their respective term and tariff mechanism. He also discussed essentials of PPAs. He however clarified that these are essentials that according to him must be there in each PPA, though provisions may be added or deleted in certain cases. While discussing stipulated/ liquidated damages as postulated under PPAs he highlighted certain issues that must be given effect to otherwise in their ambiguity, litigations begins. Liquidated Damages for Delay by Seller (Grace Period); Compensation for Delay due to Procurer’s inability to offtake power and Compensation for Delay due to Force Majeure were such issues upon which especial focus needs to be maintained while drafting PPAs.

He concluded the session by discussing features of new SBD for Case 1 and Case 2 type PPAs. To further elaborate he discussed RInfra case in Mumbai and UPPCL Bids in Uttar Pradesh under Case 1. The participants showed keen interest in knowing the underlying loopholes that led to these two landmark cases.

Session 2: Determination of ARR & Tariff for Transmission (By: Shri M PalaniappanDirector, ABPS)
The second session of the day was taken by Shri Palaniappan M., Director, ABPS Infra on how Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) and Tariff for Transmission is determined. He began his presentation by introducing to the participants about components that generally ARR includes. While discussing determination of Intra State Transmission, Mr Palaniappan, discussed the situation of Mumbai in Maharashtra where three entities, i.e. MahaTransco (State Transmission Utility), Tata Power Corporation and Reliance Energy Limited are existing. The electricity is infused in transmission lines at various kVs such as at 400kV, 220kV, 110kV and 66kV/33kV. All three provide for 220kV. In light of these facts he raised the issue of transmission pricing and how composite transmission charge is different from license specific transmission charge. He postulated that as electricity transmission in Mumbai has composite transmission lines of MSETCL, TPC and REL and therefore composite transmission charge should be taken as future holds more avenues for such composite lines. Salient features of transmission order as observed by Maharashtra State Electricity Regulatory Commission were also discussed. And lastly, session concluded with deliberation over TPC’s transmission ARR (Truing up) case study and suo-moto transmission determination by MERC.

Session 3: Procedure, techniques & Performance Standards for Annual Performance Review (By: Shri Vijay L. Sonavane, Member, MERC)
After an interactive lunch experience the participants returned for two geared up sessions by Shri Vijay L. Sonavane, Member, MERC. He started his presentation by introducing to participants about Indian power scenario viz-a-viz power scenario in various other countries. Thereafter he put forward the challenges in the sector such as Fuel Supply Issues: Coal/Gas shortages; Objections from AG land owners for erection of Trans towers in their farmland; High Dist Losses (about 22%) & LS; Market Development: OA/ PDL/DF: Slow; Off Peak Load: 70% of Peak ; Promotion of DSM/EE activities; Rising % of RES (INFIRM); Need for Ancillary systems/Energy Storage and About 20,130 (+) MW Gen Stations are Stranded & LS. The biggest issue that was highlighted is that to determine competitive tariff and thereby increase in efficiency. As determination of tariff, its process and components were already discussed in last session he postulated the ‘means’ to achieve the ‘end’ (competitive tariff). He emphasised on the need for the regulators to balance the interest of utilities with the consumers.

He once again brought the scope of Section 61 of the Electricity Act, 2003 on table. He discussed the loopholes such as mechanism being not sufficiently stable; not providing requisite incentives and the process is very long leading to high cost of Regulations. With reference to Multi-Year Tariff Framework (MYT) he highlighted key benefits i.e. it is predictable, innovating & reduces cost, it satisfies the customers and is able to allocate risk evenly. With deliberating more on MYT, its types and framework, Mr Sonavane concluded the session. One of the participant representing REC questioned him how distribution losses are to be treated while determination of retail tariff. He responded that distribution losses are the integral component of retail tariff and therefore correct percentage of losses may lead to better fixation of retail tariff for electricity.

Session 4: Government Subsidy/ Cross Subsidy Trends & Concerns (By: Shri Vijay L. Sonavane, Member, MERC)
The last session of the workshop was based on what future trends may hold in case of government subsidy and cross subsidy. This session was a follow-up session taken by Shri Sonavane. He first introduced the participants with the legal framework of subsidies as postulated under Section 65 of the Electricity Act, 2003. He said that the need of subsidy so rises because the government postulates to provide for affordable electricity. It is a necessity in order to balance between the interest of consumers and that of the utilities. He explained that they are to possible ways of providing subsidies, direct or cross-subsidy. Indian electricity largely has chosen cross-subsidy mechanism in order to deliver its commitment of providing affordable electricity to weaker section of the society (agriculture and household consumers). He discussed how cross-subsidy has been given in the State of Maharashtra to agriculture consumers and domestic consumers and the process by way of which it is cross-subsidised with commercial and industrial consumers. He further told the participants that the states need to promote agriculture, which needs water, which needs pumps for irrigation, which run on electricity. In order to have growth of agriculture sector, sector growth for electricity is much needed. At the same time he raised concern that not everything can be covered by government subsidy. Distribution losses must be brought down, efficiency of power plants must be increased and that to an extent tariff must be rationalised. However, India today, cannot rationalise tariff across consumers. That time has not come yet and therefore till that time we must work towards other two affecting factors i.e. reducing distribution losses and increasing PLF of power plants.

With reference to recent trends in provision of government subsidies to various consumers he stated that in case power looms, government subsidy has been increasing year by year reaching 754 Cr. in 2010-2011, an increase almost two folds in last five years. He further added that each year government subsidy constitutes approximately 10% of the revenue generated by the sector in Maharashtra. However with increasing the AVG cost there would be an increase in subsidy requirement. Increase in Subsidy requirement by around 50% would be required by FY 2015-16 a burden that will have to be borne by the State Exchequer. And therefore government and regulators now have to think jointly about giving subsidy only to needy and no more following a blanket approach. With this he concluded his session.

Wrap Up Session
After having three day workshop the time was to bid adieu. Shri V.P. Raja, former Chairperson, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC), Mumbai, honoured us by wrapping up entire three day workshop and various sessions that have been conducted therein with his key insights and probable solutions. He thanked CIRC and RMCS (P) Ltd for conducting such a rigorous workshop and being able to get participants from all corners of the country. He suggested that such workshop should be conducted at regional level in order to get greater participation. Regional workshops would also bring forward regional issues that can be entertained with much more deliberation which was not possible in a national level workshop. He concluded by congratulating CIRC and RMCS (P) Ltd. For having a successful workshop and requested them to follow up with regional level workshop on similar lines.

This session was followed by a Valedictory session wherein, all participants were awarded certificates by the Shri. Desh Deepak Verma, Chairman, UP Electricity Regulatory Commission along with Shri V.P. Raja; Mr Arun Talwar, COO, CIRC and Mr S.D. Mathur, CEO & Director RMCS. Shri Verma congratulated the participants and showed regret of not having been able to attend such a fruitful workshop from day 1. He invited CIRC and RMCS to do similar workshops in UP where he promised to provide all support necessary for building capacity of professionals involved in the sector.

The day concluded by Vote of Thanks which was given by Ms Arvinder Kaur, who thanked all the esteemed guests, presenters, speakers, participants, teams of CIRC and RMCS and staff of Hotel Vikram.

APPENDIX 1

Mr Nitin Desai President Governing Council, CUTS Institute for Regulation & Competition
Mr Nitin Desai has a long spell as a government official in India and then joined National Security Advisory Board the UN in 1990. In India, he was in the Planning Commission (1973-88) and later in the Ministry of Finance as the Chief Economic Adviser (1988-90). He was also Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs in UN. After his retirement he has been involved in a variety of public policy activities nationally and internationally. He was also a member of the National Security Advisory Board and the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change.

Shri V.P Raja
Former Chairman, MERC
Shri V.P Raja holds M.Phil. in Social Science and double post-graduate in Physics from Delhi University and Columbia University (U.S.A). He has a post-graduate degree in Rural Development Planning from The University of East Anglia (U.K). As an IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, he has worked in various assignments at district, state and centre levels. Since 2000, he has been with the Department of Atomic Energy as a Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary and thereafter as Principal Advisor in the pay of Secretary to Government of India. Mr. Raja was also appointed as Chairman, Expert Appraisal Committee (Thermal Power Plants and Coal Mines) MOEF, Government of India.

Shri H.L Bajaj
Former Member APTEL & Ex Chairman CEA and Ex. CMD NTPC
Shri H.L Bajaj is a graduate in Electrical Engineering and Masters in Power Systems from PEC, Chandigarh and was appointed as a member of Appellate Tribunal for Electricity in May, 2005. Shri Bajaj has also served as a Director on Board of Nuclear Corporation, a member of Government of India expert committee for finalising tariff norms of Atomic Power Stations. In 2002, he was appointed as Chairman of CEA and was concurrently also Chairman of Central Electricity Board; Chairman of Electro-division Council, Bureau of Indian standards, Vice President of the Governing Councils of Central Power Research Institute and Ex-offico member of the CERC and on the Board of Directors of Nuclear Power Corporation.

Shri P.D Sudhakar
Chairman, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC)
Shri P.D Sudhakar is a Gold Medallist in M.Sc. (Physics) from University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. He joined Tata Institute of Fundamental research, Mumbai for one year as a visiting member. He has also been awarded Diploma in Public Administration by Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi and M.Phil. in Social Sciences by Punjab University, Chandigarh in 2007. Over a span of 34 years he has held many important position in Government of India-Joint Secretary in Ministry of Agriculture (1998-2003) and Ministry of Panchayati Raj (2005-07), Member Secretary, National Capital Region (Planning Board) in Ministry of Urban Development (2007-08). He joined the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission as Chairman in 2011. Thus, involvement in varies policy imperatives has given him a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the financial, administrative and operational aspects of different sectors including Power Sector.

Shri M.R.S Murthy
Chairman, Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC)
Shri Murthy holds a Master of Arts in Political Science, Bangalore University 1975 (Awarded Gold Medal) , Master of Arts in Rural Development (Planning Stream), University of East Anglia, U.K., 1986, Master of Arts in Economics, University of Madras, 1992. He Joined the Indian Administrative Service in July 1976: under institutional raining in the National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie and field training in Dharwar District, Karnataka (July 1976 to August 1978). He has also served as Additional Secretary to Chief Minister of Karnataka, (December 1989 to October 1990), Commissioner for State Excise, Government of Karnataka (from 07.August.1993 to 12.June.1995), Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Department 01. November 2009 till 23.March.2010 and has been serving as Chairman, Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission since 24.March.2010.

Shri M Palaniappan
Regulatory Expert & Consultant, ABPS
Shri M. Palaniappan is a Production Engineer and holds a Master’s degree in Management Studies from the University of Bombay. He has also completed his Diploma in Business Finance from ICFAI, Hyderabad. He has around 18 years of management consulting experience, with around 13 years of experience in Energy Sector consulting in India. His experience in the energy sector spans the commercial, regulatory and financial spheres. He has worked in the areas of Business Planning, Demand-Supply Assessment, Techno Economic Feasibility, Valuation, Due Diligence, Financial Appraisal, Pricing, and Regulatory Affairs. He has led the teams working on regulatory assignments in Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Kerala and Assam.

Mr Prashant Kumar
Joint Director (Tariff and Finance), DERC, New Delhi)
Mr Prashant Kumar is a qualified Chartered accountant with 9 years; of experience in finance & accounts. Currently he is working with DERC as a Joint Director (Tariff-Finance). In previous assignments he has worked as a Deputy Manager (Finance) with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, and has a rich experience in spearheading entire gamut of accounting& finance operations inclusive of financial planning, budgeting, accounting systems, costing, and coordination with banks. His areas of specialisation includes-policy decision and strategic management, financial analysis, regulatory practices in Electricity sector.

Shri Suresh Gehani
Regulatory Expert & Consultant, ABPS
Shri Gehani has graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Regional Engineering College, Bhopal and hold a Master’s in Business Administration degree from Nagpur University. He has around 20 years of experience in the Energy Sector in India. His experience in power sector spans the commercial, regulatory and financial spheres. He has worked in the areas of Development of Independent Power Projects, finalisation of project contracts, Business planning, demand-supply assessment, financial appraisal, pricing, risk-assessment and regulatory affairs. He has also developed financial models for assessing the generation and power purchase expense, including merit order despatch modelling and various options for carrying out reforms.

Ms. Anjuli Chandra
Chief Engineer, Power System &Project Monitoring, Central Electricity Authority, New Delhi
Ms Anjuli Chandra holds B.E electrical from Thappar Institute of Engineering and Technology and MBA from Punjab University, Patiala and is also a certified Energy Auditor by Bureau of Energy Efficiency. She is an officer of the 1978 IES batch. She has a work experience of 33 years in various capacities in formations/divisions of CEA, Punjab State Electricity Board and DERC. In addition she has been awarded the CBIP Tag Corporation Award in 2006-07 for meritorious contribution to power sector and also by National Council for Power Utilities in 2012 for her contribution to power sector.

Shri Sushanta Kumar Chatterjee
Chief (Regulatory Affairs), CERC, Delhi
Shri Chatterjee is working as Chief (Regulatory Affairs) with CERC. He has long experience dealing with power sector reforms, especially regulatory reforms since its inception in 1998 when Electricity Regulatory Commission Act, 1998 was enacted. He has also been involved in the evolution of the Electricity Act, 2003. In addition, he has also authored a book on the Act titled: “Chatterjee’s Commentary on The Electricity Laws of India”. He has also served as a regular guest faculty for Power Management Institute (PMI), National Power Training Institute (NPTI), University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) on power sector, electricity regulations, EA 2003 etc.

Shri V.L Sonavane
Member (Technical), MERC
Shri Sonavane has been awarded BE (Electrical) and ME (Electrical) by Pune University. He joined MSEB in 1975 as Assistant Engineer and has been associated with Power System Planning, Energy Control Centre, Energy Audit, 400KV Planning, HVDC, Tariff Petition, Corporate planning and Distribution projects. In August 2009, he was appointed as Member (Technical) in MERC and has also presented papers at Kathmandu in Afro Asian Conference (1996), Conference on “SCADA Asia 2010” at Kuala Lampur and various other conferences. In 2013, he was also selected as Honorary member of Forum of Indian Regulators (FOIR), New Delhi.