APERC new power tariff puts no additional burden on consumers
VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) has released new tariff order for the financial year 2021-22 without putting any additional burden on power consumers. Speaking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, APERC Chairman Justice CV Nagarjuna Reddy said the average unit price has been brought down to Rs 6.37 from Rs 7.17.
He said three Discoms projected a combined deficit of Rs 11,741.18 crore at the proposed tariff with hike in tariff for certain categories of consumers and Rural Electric Supply Cooperatives (RESCOs). The APERC has fixed a deficit of Rs 7,433.80 crore for the three Discoms thus avoiding a burden of Rs 4,307.38 crore on consumers.
The Average Cost of Service (ACoS) has been reduced from Rs 7.17 to Rs 6.37 per unit as per the APERC approvals. The State government has agreed to bear a subsidy burden of Rs 7,297.08 crore pertaining to agriculture consumers eligible for free supply of power and dhobi ghats for the financial year 2021-22.
In order to maintain uniform tariff across the State, the government has also agreed to bear a subsidy of Rs 136.72 crore arising due to concessional tariff extended to domestic consumers of APEPDCL, he said.
The APERC had accepted the proposal of Discoms to collect Rs 10 per kW a month from domestic consumers in lieu of minimum charges. The decision will benefit all the domestic consumers who do not consume energy in any given month on the one side and generate a moderate additional revenue to the Discoms from the consumers who consume energy on the other side, he said.Justice Nagarjuna Reddy said they rejected the proposal of Discoms to bill apartment consumers under a single point HT connection as it will create problems for the middle class apartment dwellers.
The proposal to remove fixed charges (Rs 100/kW/month) for function halls was accepted. The proposal to change the present peak Time of Day (6 am to 10 am) to 4 am to 8 am was rejected as it will effectively reduce off peak time by 2 hours for industries, he said.Existing rice mills and pulverisers are given one more opportunity to avail the benefit of getting billed under LT tariff up to a connected load of 150 HP against the present limit of 100 HP, the APERC Chairman said.
Average unit price reduced to Rs 6.37 from Rs 7.17
The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission has fixed a deficit of Rs 7,433.80 crore for the three Discoms in the State thus avoiding a burden of Rs 4,307.38 crore on power consumers. The average unit price has been brought down to Rs 6.37 from Rs 7.17