The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has directed show-cause proceedings against an inter-state transmission licensee, referred to here as Girivan Transco Ltd., after finding repeated non-compliance with conditions attached to its transmission licence, including delayed submission of periodic system-availability reports and lapses in scheduled maintenance disclosures required under the CERC (Grant of Connectivity, Long-Term Access and Medium-Term Open Access) framework and associated licence conditions.
CERC's order noted that transmission licensing under the Electricity Act, 2003 is conditional, not merely a one-time grant, and that a licensee's continued entitlement to operate depends on ongoing compliance with the technical, financial and reporting conditions attached to the licence: a point the Commission felt necessary to underscore given what it described as a pattern of delayed compliance rather than an isolated lapse.
The Commission stopped short of revoking or suspending the licence at this stage, opting instead for a formal show-cause process that will require the licensee to explain each instance of non-compliance and propose a corrective compliance plan, but noted that continued default could expose the licensee to financial penalties under Section 29 of the Electricity Act and, in an extreme case, action affecting the licence itself.
The order is a reminder to transmission licensees that CERC's compliance oversight extends well beyond tariff determination into the ongoing operational conditions attached to the licence itself, and that reporting lapses which might individually seem minor can accumulate into a pattern that invites more serious regulatory scrutiny.