BENGALURU - Indian power plants that rely on imported coal should be fully compensated for supplying electricity demand under forced circumstances, the country's power regulator said on Tuesday.

Power tariffs for imported coal-based plants should cover their costs as well as a "reasonable profit margin," the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) said in an order dated Jan. 3.

The order was related to Tata Power Co Ltd approaching the CERC against the tariff fixed by the power ministry after a forced directive last year to keep operating to avert a power crisis.

The CERC order also said that the tariff fixed by the power ministry was for an interim period.

In May last year, India invoked an emergency clause in the Electricity Act to ask non-operational imported coal-based plants, with a combined capacity of about 17 gigawatts, to resume functioning to meet high electricity demand.

The plants had been shut due to higher international coal prices.

(Reporting by Sarita Chaganti Singh in New Delhi and Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)