The Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) on Monday granted a 25-year parallel electricity distribution licence to a 2025 incorporated company, Eleven Power for Gurugram and Nuh revenue districts despite objections from the Haryana’s power distribution and transmission companies, power engineers, employee unions and public representatives.
The Commission said it has taken a serious note of the fact that notwithstanding the substantial number of connections released during the intervening period, the cumulative pending load has continued to remain significant. “This is borne out by the substantial pendency of consumer grievances, applications for release of new electricity connections and load enhancement. DHBVN currently serves electricity consumers in Gurugram and Nuh districts. DHBVN contended that the investment assessment should also account for working capital and land acquisition or lease costs during implementation phase.
20,603 applications involving 770.407 megawatt (MW) were pending with state owned power distribution companies Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) while Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) had 1,08,590 applications involving 1642.542 MW pending as on October 1, 2025, according to the latest status furnished by the state’s distribution companies. Thus, the aggregate pending load with the two distribution companies stood at 2412 MW as against 2,403 MW as on April 1, 2025,’’ the Commission said. DHBVN in its objections said the 2025 incorporated company has grossly underestimated the investment required for establishing an independent distribution network which is capable of fulfilling its statutory universal service obligation (USO). While Eleven Power’s business plan envisaged a capital investment of ₹ 4,717 crore requiring promoter equity of about ₹ 1,415 crore, the DHBVN in its objections said that the capital investment required for establishing distribution infrastructure in Gurugram and Nuh revenue districts would be approximately ₹ 11,397.7 crore at current price levels over and above the working capital requirement, requiring equity investment of ₹ 3,419.33 crore for putting entire network for meeting universal supply obligation. As per DHBVN’s assessment, the investment requirement comprises ₹ 6,754.21 crore for the high-tension network, ₹ 3,443.99 crore for the low-tension network and ₹ 586.22 crore for the 33 KV network. The utility said the estimates were prepared on the basis of the infrastructure required to provide electricity to nearly 8.68 lakh consumers spread across the Gurugram and Nuh revenue districts.
This, it said, was as per the current infrastructure required to provide power supply to consumers in the proposed area of licensee jurisdiction. The utility said that Eleven Power failed to demonstrate availability of such equity through audited financials or internal resource generation. Its reliance on volatile market value of securities cannot justify creditworthiness for such a large-scale capital programme, it said. HVPN, the transmission utility, in its objections said that Eleven Power business plan raised serious concerns regarding “cherry-picking” as the company proposes to initially supply consumers in the vicinity of grid substations at 220 kV to 66 kV levels which are high density, commercially attractive areas
Haryana energy minister Anil Vij said that the state government will challenge the order of the regulatory body in Appellate Tribunal for Electricity( APTEL). The minister said this in a post on social media platform X.
