Gas (Amendment) Act, 2000

Supplementary provisions to be included in regulations with respect to method of selection.

4.—Regulations shall include the following provisions:

(a) a provision specifying that, for the purposes of the order of precedence referred to in section 3 (3)(c), if 2 or more applications have the same commissioning date, the precedence in which those applications shall rank among themselves shall be as follows—

(i) in case there are only 2 such applications, the application whose planned generating station will have the larger rated generating capacity as against that of the other application shall rank before that other,

(ii) in case there are more than 2 such applications—

(I) the application (“the first-mentioned application”) whose planned generating station will have the largest rated generating capacity as against those of the other applications shall rank before those others,

(II) of those other applications, the application whose planned generating station will have the larger or the largest rated generating capacity as against that or those of the other application or applications shall rank next after the first-mentioned application and so on,

(b) a provision specifying that where, in the opinion of the Commission, the ranking of any particular person in the order of precedence referred to in section 3 (3)(c) would, if the person were to be selected, result in the promotion of competition in the market for the generation and supply of electricity being adversely affected, the Commission shall, subject to the provision referred to in paragraph (c), make such alteration in the ranking of the person in that order of precedence as it considers will prevent such a result or, if necessary, decide that the person shall not be amongst the persons who are selected (and, where the Commission so decides, the person, accordingly, shall not be selected),

(c) a provision specifying that the Commission, if it is of opinion that the exercise of that power would ultimately result in demand for the supply of electricity in the State not being met, shall not exercise the power as aforesaid to alter the ranking of a person or, as the case may be, not to select a person to such extent as is necessary to ensure, so far as is practicable, that such demand is met,

(d) a provision specifying that the Commission shall select no more than 3 persons unless, in making the evaluation referred to in section 3 (3)(a), it determines that there are good grounds for doing otherwise and that, in making any such determination, it shall have regard, and only have regard, to—

(i) the need to ensure that as much of the total available capacity as is possible will be utilised for the generation of electricity, and

(ii) the need to promote competition in the market for the generation and supply of electricity.