Power Transmission Sector To See New Regulator Soon

The Ministry of Power has announced that the ailing power sector will soon see a new regulator, more specifically a transmission regulator – the Power Operation System Company (POSOCO). In the crowd of too many regulations and legality, this will only mean the addition of another regulatory body.

After the country saw its largest power outage last year, in which more than half of the population and three grids in the eastern and northern region were plunged into the dark, the Power ministry has taken a decision to hive off POSOCO, a subsidiary of state-owned transmission utility Powergrid, to form a new transmission regulator. POSOCO currently manages the National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC). As per the ministry, the new regulator would be formed within the next 12 months. The profile of the regulator would be to schedule the delivery of electricity in the 5 regions across the country. Regional Load Dispatch Centres (RLDC) would be responsible to maintain the grid discipline at the regional level, while State Load Dispatch Centres (SLDC) would take care of this at the state level.

Currently, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), state level regulatory bodies and the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) take care of the normal functioning of the power sector. The Power ministry, Coal ministry, Environment ministry, and Ministry of Renewable Energy are also responsible for handling various issues in the sector. Too many regulations have already taken a great toll on the sector and growth has come to halt. In addition, there are also discussions on assigning an independent coal regulator, though nothing concrete has happened so far in this respect.

Of course, even after the new regulator takes over, how they would solve the issues remains to be seen.