Objection before KERC: reject Tata Power’s parallel distribution licences

Tata Power Company Limited filed petitions before the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission for parallel distribution licences in more than fifteen districts, over the areas of BESCOM, CESC, HESCOM, MESCOM and GESCOM, without a fully independent network of its own.

EEFI’s objection of 23 June 2026 asked the Commission to reject petitions MP 02/2026 to MP 06/2026 after public hearing. A parallel licensee that lives on the ESCOM wires is not competition. It is cherry-picking of paying urban and industrial load, and the dumping of the farmer and the rural household on the public company.

Section 14 of the Electricity Act requires a licensee to build and maintain its own system. Section 43 binds every licensee to universal service. Mumbai’s years of network-sharing disputes, recorded by Prayas (Energy Group), the Supreme Court judgment of 8 July 2008 in Tata Power v. Reliance Energy, later APTEL orders, the Haryana Commission’s interim order of 26 May 2026, and the revocation of Odisha’s private licences, are placed on the record as warning.

The memorandum also places the jobs of ESCOM employees, the cross-subsidy that keeps agricultural power affordable, and the stability of a single public grid. EEFI asked for a public hearing and for the ESCOMs to be left as the distribution utilities of the state.