SKV Law Offices Secures Interim Stay Against TNERC’s Green Energy Open Access Regulations
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SKV Law Offices Secures Interim Stay Against TNERC’s Green Energy Open Access Regulations
28.02.2026
SKV Law Offices successfully represented Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited (TPREL) before the Madras High Court in a writ petition challenging the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission’s Green Energy Open Access Regulations, 2025. The petition sought judicial review of a regulatory framework that substantially altered the energy accounting system governing renewable energy generators in Tamil Nadu.
Complexity
The matter raised significant questions on legality, vires, and the scope of delegated legislative authority under the Electricity Act, 2003. A central issue concerned the retrospective introduction of a mandatory 15-minute time block accounting mechanism, which replaced the long standing annual and slot wise adjustment framework.
The requirement that generation in each 15-minute interval must be matched strictly against consumption within the same interval created serious commercial, operational, and regulatory challenges for renewable projects whose generation is naturally intermittent and weather dependent. The absence of transitional provisions and the disruption of established investment expectations further amplified the complexity.
Our Role
The disputes and regulatory team at SKV Law Offices presented a detailed challenge demonstrating that the 15-minute time block requirement imposed an unreasonable and disproportionate burden on renewable energy generators. SKV Law Offices explained that applying this mechanism retrospectively undermined a stable policy framework on the basis of which major renewable investments had been made.
Our submissions highlighted the constitutional and statutory infirmities in the Impugned Regulations and emphasised that the restructuring failed to meet principles of rationality, proportionality, and predictability that are essential to regulatory decision making. We also demonstrated how the new framework converted natural intermittency in renewable generation into immediate financial exposure without any justified basis.
Impact
The Madras High Court granted an interim stay on the operation of the Impugned Regulations, including the mandatory 15-minute time block accounting requirement. This order protects TPREL from immediate adverse consequences and ensures stability and operational certainty pending final adjudication.
Click here to read the order.
SKV Team
The matter was led by Mr. C. S. Vaidyanathan, Senior Advocate, along with Mr. Shri Venkatesh, Founding Partner, Mr. Suhael Buttan, Partner, Mr. Vineet Kumar, Senior Associate, and Ms. Drishti Rathi, Associate from SKV Law Offices.
