KURNOOL: The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) issued an order on the FPPCA (Fuel and Power Purchase Cost Adjustment) True-Up charges and approved the final amount of Rs 9,412 crore, instead of Rs 12,844 crore which was initially proposed by the power distribution corporation (Discoms).
The Regulatory Commission pointed out that the adjustment resulted in significantly reducing the financial impact on consumers by Rs 3,432 crore.
The government order further stated that APERC did not accept Discoms’ request to carry costs from the due date to realisation, limiting it to 90 days post-filing.
Further, it also pointed out that power distribution companies had collected Rs 2,868 crore in the financial year 2023-24 at 40 paise per unit. After factoring in these collections, the net amount to be recovered from consumers stands at Rs 6,543 crore, down from Rs 9,975 crore.
A uniform per-unit true-up rate was determined for all Discoms with variations only based on Transmission and distribution (T&D) losses.
Further, the Electricity Regulatory Commission directed Discoms to recover the total true-up amount over 24 months to minimise burden on consumers.
The government orders also emphasised that the FPPCA costs for agricultural and 100% subsidised consumers, amounting to Rs 1,500 crore, will be recovered from the State government, benefiting approximately 20 lakh consumers.
Discoms in the State had proposed an increase in electricity charges through the FPPCA mechanism in October.
Defending the move, Minister for Energy Gottipati Ravi Kumar had blamed the previous government, led by YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, for the inevitable increase in power tariff, saying, “Even when the proposal was made in March 2024, no decision was taken as the elections were just weeks away.”