THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Citing irregularities, the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity has returned the petition filed by KSEB against the Electricity Regulatory Commission's order canceling the long-term power purchase agreement of 465 MW.

This is with the direction that the State Regulatory Commission may take an appropriate decision.

The state government, party to the case, said that it has directed to review the cancellation of the contract by exercising its discretion in this regard. This too was considered by the Appellate Tribunal. With this, the long-term contract again came before the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.

The long-term power contract of 465 MW was canceled in May this year. The complaint of KSEB is that there was a power deficit in the state and to overcome this, they had to buy power from the open exchange at a huge price. A huge cess will have to be levied on the unit of electricity to compensate for the loss due to this. As a temporary solution, KSEB invited tenders for short-term contracts, but the participating companies quoted huge amounts. According to KSEB, efforts have been made to restore the canceled contracts by any means.

To restore the contract by exercising the special powers vested in the govt

Cabinet meeting decided to restore the contract using special powers. It was forwarded to the Regulatory Commission. But the legal advice received by the Regulatory Commission is that a decision can be taken on restoring the contract only after the petition in the Appellate Tribunal is disposed of. The Regulatory Commission may consider KSEB's application this week after the tribunal has disposed of the petition. The Commission is bound to comply with the directive of the Cabinet. The contract signed during the UDF government was canceled last May citing a technical problem in the tender process.