THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) has sought the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (KERC) nod to collect thermal fuel surcharge from consumers for recovering nearly `20 crore additionally spent on power purchases during July, August and September 2017. If allowed per se, the surcharge will come to around 4 paise per unit. KSEB, in a petition filed the other day, has sought KERC’s permission to collect the surcharge with retrospective effect from December.
The latest surcharge plea comes close on the heels of a similar petition filed in October last year, in which KSEB had sought permission to collect a surcharge of 14 paise per unit for recovering `74.60 crore additionally spent on power purchases during April, May and June, 2017.
In the latest petition, KSEB said it incurred an additional liability of `19.74 crore on power purchases made from 18 power generation stations across the country during the three months. The tariff regulations allow KSEB to recover the additional liability via a fuel surcharge on the bimonthly electricity bill.
During the three months, KSEB was also forced to schedule costlier power from three thermal power stations — NTPC Kayamkulam, KDPP and BDPP — in the state after Central supply was hit on August 12 and 13.But this additional liability will be submitted for KERC’s scrutiny subsequently in the ‘truing-up’ petitions for the 2017-18 fiscal.