Tata Power Co has dragged CLP India to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), alleging that the latter has misrepresented the date of commercial operation of its Jhajjar power project.

In its petition before the CERC, the Tata group firm described CLP India's claim that its Jhajjar plant has started commercial operation is 'illegal', which caused financial losses.

According to CLP India's claims, the Jhajjar, Haryana-based power plant's two units of 660 MW each started supplying electricity in March 2012 and July 2012, respectively. But as per Tata Power's claims, CLP declared the plant commercially operational without availability of coal with an intention to mislead its off-takers that a firm supply of electricity from the plant would commence.

The newly filed petition has also claimed that the project wasn't supplying any electricity to Haryana and Delhi. As per terms of power supply agreement, the Jhajjar plant was to supply 90 per cent of its electricity to Haryana and the remaining
10 per cent to Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd.

It may be noted here that declaration of the start of commercial operation of a power generator allows it to start billing discoms for fixed charges even if it is not supplying the committed electricity.

CLP India is the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based CLP Holdings Ltd., which has invested the largest amount of foreign funds into India's power sector. The company has so far invested Rs 12,000 crore to create its power projects spanning six states with a total power generation capacity of 2,700 mw. The Jhajjar plant is its biggest power project, with a capacity of 1,320 mw.