The Haryana government has written to the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) to conduct a public hearing before finally deciding the fate of the petition filed by a private company, Eleven Power, for the grant of a parallel power distribution license in Gurugram and Nuh revenue districts.
The state government has also asked the commission to put the report of the expert committee, constituted by the commission for examining Eleven Power’s petition, in the public domain. The directions for expressing the concerns of the state government were given by state energy minister, Anil Vij and subsequently a communication was sent by the state owned transmission company.
The power regulator under pressure from agitating power employees had on September 3 sought fresh comments and objections from the stakeholders on the report of the expert committee constituted by it for examining the petition of Eleven Power for grant of a parallel distribution license. However, after concluding the September 3 hearing, the regulator reserved its order on Eleven Power’s petition.
Two interlocutory applications filed by state owned power utilities DHBVN and UHBVN in the matter were also disposed of.
{{/usCountry}}Two interlocutory applications filed by state owned power utilities DHBVN and UHBVN in the matter were also disposed of.
{{/usCountry}}Officials said a communication has been sent at the behest of the government to HERC stressing the need for greater transparency in the matter. “Section 86 of the Electricity Act clearly provides that the state commission shall ensure transparency while exercising its powers and discharging its functions. Those functions also include issuing licences to persons seeking to act as transmission licensees, distribution licensees and electricity traders with respect to their operations within the state,’’ said an official.
The application for parallel power distribution network was filed by Eleven Power Private Limited under Sections 14 and 15 of the Electricity Act, 2003, along with the applicable HERC regulations and the Distribution of Electricity Licence (Additional Requirements of Capital Adequacy, Creditworthiness and Code of Conduct) Rules, 2005. The issue assumed significance as the application has drawn objections from a large number of stakeholders.
The expert committee constituted by the commission to examine the petition by Eleven Power for a parallel electricity distribution licence had recommended that the license may be granted.
State owned power distribution company, DHBVN at present exclusively serves electricity consumers in the two districts. Sunil Sachdeva, the co- founder of Medanta - The Medicity, a leading chain of multi-super specialty hospitals is the director of Eleven Power and chairman of Eleven Group.
The expert panel headed by retired IAS officer, Alok Nigam in its report submitted to the commission had said the committee has not found any ground upon which the Eleven Power’s petition falls to be refused. “The committee accordingly recommends that a parallel distribution licence may be considered to be granted to the applicant subject to the conditions as suggested in schedules A to D. The matters requiring regulatory attention are matters of implementation, sequencing and continuing supervision and the committee has recommended the licence conditions and safeguards by which they may be addressed,’’ said the report which is recommendatory in nature.
The committee’s recommendations, however, were challenged by the power engineer’s bodies who have raised questions over whether a new licensee can fulfil the statutory condition of universal supply obligation (USO) while building its network in a phased manner.
Representatives of the power engineer’s bodies who are intervenors in the petition had questioned whether the expert panel has adequately tested Eleven Power’s phased, demand driven model’s compatibility with the statutory obligation to serve the entire licenced area as per USO.
While Eleven Power has committed to spend about ₹4,716 crore in five years (from 2026-27 till 2030-31) with 84% of its five year capital expenditure being in the last three years, the expert panel has accepted this phased investment plan, notwithstanding the contention raised by DHBVN that ₹11,397 crore would be required to create infrastructure capable of meeting the universal service obligation (USO) across two districts. Brushing aside DHBVN’s argument, the panel has treated the two estimates as based on different approaches for network development with Eleven Power proposing a phased, demand linked rollout.
The commission, in an interim order of September 3, had said that applications containing requests for the supply of a copy of report of the expert committee along with other documents were handed over to Congress MLA from Nuh Aftab Ahmed, All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF), and Haryana Power Engineers Association (HPEA) and their members.
“The report of the expert committee shall be forwarded by email to the 43 intervenors who may file their comments, objections and suggestions on or before September 15, 2026,’’ the commission said.