About Power System Operation Corporation Limited
Power System Operation Corporation Limited (POSOCO) is a wholly owned Government of India Enterprise under the Ministry of Power. It was earlier a wholly owned subsidiary of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL). It was formed in March 2009 to handle the power management functions of PGCIL. It is responsible to ensure the integrated operation of the Grid in a reliable, efficient, and secure manner. It consists of 5 Regional Load Despatch Centres and a National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC).
Central Government through Ministry of Power in exercise of the power conferred by sub-section (3) of Sect 26 and sub-section (2) of Section 27 of the Electricity Act, 2003, by notification dt. 27 September 2010 in the Gazette of India notified that the Power System Operation Corporation Ltd (POSOCO), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (a Government Company) shall operate National Load Despatch Centre and the five Regional Load Despatch Centers, with effect from 1 October 2010.
The subsidiary was set up on the recommendations of a government committee headed by G.B. Pradhan, additional secretary in the Union ministry of power. To make load despatch centres financially self-reliant and autonomous, the committee recommended independent and sustainable revenue streams. The move to separate the two functions is in keeping with the provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003, which seeks to separate commercial interests from load management functions. The Pradhan committee report had recommended setting up a separate representative board structure overseeing the functions of the five regional load despatch centres (RLDCs) run by PGCIL—the northern, eastern, north-eastern, western and southern regions at that time. The subsidiary was eventually made a separate company effective from 3 January 2017.