The Consumer Protection Act authorizes the central government to establish a Central Consumer Protection Board consisting of the central government minister responsible for consumer affairs as president and a number of other official and unofficial members representing prescribed interests. The ECA is often seen as the central document for the development of independent power generation facilities (power plants). Since it defines the project`s turnover conditions and credit quality, it is the key to obtaining non-recourse project financing. This has affected their ability to purchase electricity for supply and their ability to invest in improving distribution infrastructure. Therefore, this impacts the quality of the electricity consumers receive. This was announced as one of the 15 measures of the first tranche to combat the economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus lockdown, which have aggravated the already precarious finances of the DISCOMS government. Electricity is produced in thermal, hydro or renewable power plants operated either by state-owned enterprises such as NTPC Ltd, NHPC Ltd, or by private companies (also called independent power producers or IPPs) such as Tata Power, Adani Power or renewable companies such as ReNew Power or Greenko. Recently, a new form of ECA has been proposed to market electric vehicle charging stations through a bilateral form of electricity reception contract. The package announced by the Finance Minister was a liquidity injection into Rs 90 trillion in electricity distribution companies (or DISCOMS). Under a ECA, the buyer is usually a distribution company or a company that purchases electricity to meet the needs of its customers. In the case of distributed generation with a commercial AA variant, the buyer can be the occupant of the building – for example, a company, a school or a government.
Electricity distributors may also enter into ECA with the seller. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has launched new guidelines for the purchase of electricity produced from grid solar power projects through tenders. . . .