High Court stays GO to renegotiate PPAs

Amaravati: In a major setback to the YSRCP government in general and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in particular, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday stayed the state government order No 63 issued on July 1 seeking renegotiation of all renewable energy power supply contracts (Power Purchase Agreements).

Justice M Ganga Rao, after hearing the counsel of the 40 renewable power generation companies, including senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, stayed the government order for four weeks and fixed the next hearing date to August 22.

It may be recalled that the 40 power generation companies, including Vayu Urja Bharat, Azure Power India, Eco Ren Energy India, Danu Wind Parks, Fusion Wind Park, Mitra Vayu, ACEM Solar Holdings, Ushodaya Enterprises, Hetero Windpower, Eenadu Television and others filed the petitions in the High Court challenging the government order to renegotiate the renewable energy supply contracts.

The power companies also challenged the letter written by the chief general manager of Andhra Pradesh Southern Power Distribution Company Limited appointing a high-level negotiation committee to review the power purchase agreements.

The companies contended that the officials of electricity department and APSPDCL have been threatening that they would cancel the agreements if they do not agree to their terms.

They appealed to the High Court to stay the implementation of the letter written by APSPDCL chief general manager. Justice M Ganga Rao concurring with the arguments of the counsel, also stayed the letter written by the chief general manager.