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APTEL Partly Allows Compensation for Tanot Wind Power, Orders RERC to Reconsider Curtailment Case

The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) has overturned the Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (RERC) order dismissing a petition by Tanot Wind Power over repeated curtailments of its 120 MW wind project in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. Tanot’s project, commissioned in 2015 through two power purchase agreements with Jaipur Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd. (JVVNL), faced frequent generation backdowns from the State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC) despite being granted “must-run” status. The developer claimed arbitrary curtailments since September 2015, citing technical faults such as collapsed towers, conductor dislocations, and line breakdowns that caused major outages and revenue losses exceeding Rs100 million.

RERC had earlier dismissed the petition, siding with SLDC’s justification that curtailments were necessary for grid safety. However, APTEL found that RERC failed to properly evaluate whether each curtailment complied with must-run regulations. The Tribunal accepted Tanot’s claim for 31.77 million units (MU) of deemed generation and directed the loss to be shared equally among SLDC, Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Prasaran Nigam, and JVVNL. Other claims related to over-voltage and line outages (totaling 31.71 MU) were remanded to RERC for detailed re-examination within three months. The judgment reinforces renewable generators’ protection against arbitrary grid curtailments in Rajasthan.