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- economic viability of these units vis - a -vis carrying out essential maintenance works to sustain the operation of the units for some more years.

HPGCL has proposed PLFs of 52.59%, 59.34%, 69.95% & 64.86% for PTPS units 1 to 4 respectively (overall 59.88%) based on the average of actual PLF during the preceding three complete years of operation. This was objected to by the Discoms on the plea that the PLF proposed by HPGCL is not in line with HERC Generation Tariff Regulations, 2008 and in the past the Commission has also expressed its concern the deterioration in PLF of HPGCL's power stations. The Commission observes that the petitioner has quoted the order of Jharkhand ERC in which the norms of operational parameters have been relaxed for Patratu TPS units as the same are 35-40 years old. The comparison is not valid as Patratu TPS units are much older than Panipat TPS units with derated capacity of 4x40 MW, 2x90 MW 2x105 MW & 2x110MW. It is learnt that Central Electricity Authority has suggested to JSEB to retire six out of ten units of this plant after finding them obsolete and mentioning any further investment on them for revival as unviable. Moreover, Panipat TPS units 1&2 have already demonstrated PLFs of 80% & above in the months of June to October during FY 2011-12 and PLFs of nearly 70% can be expected from units 3 &4 as already proposed by HPGCL for FY 2012-13. The average of PLFs of last three years has been low due to certain forced outages of long durations which are not expected or desired to be repeated in future.

Page 10 Judgment in Appeal No. 108 of 2012 e. In fact, while responding to the objections raised by the DISCOMS during the hearing before the Commission, the Appellant had submitted as follows:

"Consideration of CERC Regulations:-

HPGCL has adhered to the Hon'ble HERC norms and the principles adopted by the Hon'ble Commission in previous tariff orders, in the most of the cases. Only in the cases where the HERC norms are silent or HPGCL finds CERC norms to be achievable even though they are more stringent, HPGCL has referred to the norms adopted by the Central Commission. It would be grossly inappropriate to suggest that HPGCL has followed CERC Regulations when they are more beneficial to HPGCL, as HPGCL has proposed certain technical parameters in line with CERC norms, which are more stringent than the State Commission's norms, for instance:

"HERC has not been averse to allowing relaxed norms for the old units provided there is a road map for improving the parameters in a reasonable period of time. HPGCL has proposed SHR of 3336.63 Kcal/Kwh for 110 MW PTPS units- 1 to 4 (24 to 32 years old) and 2935.19/2954.60 Kcal/Kwh for 210 MW PTPS units-5 &6 ( 10 to 22 years old). In comparison, SHR achieved is 3035.88 at 110 MW Bhatinda TPS (33 to 37 years old), 2472.62 at 210 MW Ropar TPS (19 to 25 years old) and 2493 at 110/195/210 MW Kota TPS (3 to 37 years old). The proposal of the petitioner with regard to SHR of PTPS Unit 1 to 6 was objected to by the Discoms on the grounds that they are not in line with HERC Generation Tariff Regulations, 2008. The Discoms also referred to the observations of the Commission in Page 19 Judgment in Appeal No. 108 of 2012 its FY 2011-12 order that 'if recommendations contained in energy audit report of PTPS Unit 1 - 6 are implemented by HPGCL, there is considerable scope for reduction in SHR and bringing the same within 10% of the design heat rate. The Commission has considered the objections of Discoms as well as response of HPGCL on the same. As per HERC Regulation dated 19.12.2008, the target Station Heat Rate (Kcal/kWh) has been fixed at 2450/2410 for 300 MW & above sets with stream/electric driven BFPs respectively and a trajectory has been fixed for PTPS units 1-6 as under:-

With reference to section 5.3 (f & h) of National Tariff Policy referred to by HPGCL, the Commission has been relaxing the operating norms in the past wherever considered appropriate and drawing a transition path over the time for achieving the norms, but HPGCL has not taken enough steps to follow the same. HPGCL was requested to indicate the year wise trajectory in case of all the performance parameters wherever they are lagging behind the approved norms so as to achieve the operating norms as soon as possible, but HPGCL has not given the desired trajectory and again prayed to the Page 20 Judgment in Appeal No. 108 of 2012 Commission to appreciate the efforts taken by the HPGCL in the past and its commitment towards the improvement of operating performance from the existing level, considering the vintage of the Units for which certain deviations from the norms have been sought.