CERC Upholds Earlier Ruling, Dismisses NTL Claim Over Transmission Outage Linked To Road Expansion Work

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has dismissed a fresh petition filed by NRSS XXIX Transmission Limited regarding its 400 kV Sambha–Amargarh transmission line, refusing to grant deemed availability for a 20-day outage in early 2022.

The case relates to a shutdown of the transmission line between January 20 and February 8, 2022. NTL had argued that the outage was unavoidable and was caused by external factors, specifically road expansion work carried out by the Border Roads Organization in the Rajouri region. The company claimed that excavation activities destabilized the hillside near Tower 286, leading to cracks and land movement, which posed a serious risk to the structure. As a safety measure, NTL shut down the line to bypass the affected tower.

NTL initially treated the incident as a force majeure event, stating that it was beyond their control. However, both the Northern Regional Power Committee and the Central Electricity Authority did not accept this claim and denied deemed availability for the outage period. This meant that the transmission line could not be considered available for tariff recovery during those 20 days. A petition filed earlier in 2022 was also rejected by the Commission, which noted that the tower had shown signs of stress even before the road work began and suggested that better maintenance could have prevented the situation.

After this, NTL approached the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity and later filed a new petition before the Commission. This time, the company relied on a Revised Standard Operating Procedure issued by the Central Electricity Authority on January 14, 2025. NTL argued that the updated SOP had no time restrictions and could be applied to past incidents. It also claimed that since the outage was linked to a national infrastructure project, it should qualify for deemed availability under the revised guidelines.

In its order dated April 10, 2026, the Commission rejected these arguments and upheld its earlier position. It was observed that for the new SOP to apply, there must be clear evidence showing that the transmission line was shifted or affected directly due to the infrastructure project. The Commission found that NTL failed to establish this connection.

The Commission also pointed out that the company did not provide sufficient proof that the damage to the tower was caused solely by the road construction work. It further reiterated that adopting prudent utility practices, such as regular patrolling and timely detection of structural issues, could have avoided the outage.

Based on these findings, the Commission concluded that the revised SOP was not applicable in this case. It dismissed the petition and confirmed that the earlier denial of deemed availability would remain unchanged, bringing an end to the dispute.