NEYVELI LIGNITE CORPORATION LIMITED Vs. THE CHIEF ENGINEER/PLANNING TAMIL NADU ELECTRICITY BOARD AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition has been filed by the Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited (NLC) seeking extension of time for implementation of Restricted Governor Mode of Operation (RGMO) in Stage -I and Stage -II of NLC -TPS -II (the generating station) as required under Regulation 5.2 (f) of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Indian Electricity Grid Code) Regulations, 2010 (hereinafter referred "Grid Code"). Regulation 5.2.(f) of the Grid Code provides that all thermal generating units of 200 MW and above and all hydro units of 10 MW and above which are synchronized with the grid, irrespective of their ownership, shall be required to have their governors in operation at all time in accordance with the provisions in sub -clauses (i) to (iii). The provision in the Grid Code in regard to governor action is extracted as under: -

(2.) THE Commission, vide its order dated 20.8.2009 in Petition No. 12/2004, directed the generating companies to implement RGMO in various types of thermal and hydro units as per the following schedule.

(3.) THE petitioner has submitted that the issues regarding implementation of FGMO including trial operation of FGMO in Southern Region were discussed in the month of January, 2010 in the Operation Coordination Committee meeting held at SRPC, Bangalore. Since all the machines in Southern Region were not ready for FGMO as per the Grid Code, trial could not be held on 1.2.2010. The petitioner has explained the difficulties experienced in testing of software received from M/s. Siemens, the modification required in the system based on the testing results in Stage -I and the plan of the petitioner to indent and install the hardware and software for implementation of the RGMO in Stage -II.