HYDERABAD: The Discoms are willing to administer power shocks to consumers every month, in accordance with the Central government rules, provided the Electricity Regulatory Commission amends its rules. If the power purchase cost increases, then the Discoms will pass on the burden to consumers every month.
While filing the Aggregate Revenue Requirements (ARR) for 2022-23, the Discoms said the Central government notified ‘Electricity (Timely Recovery of Costs due to change in Law) Rules, 2021’ issued on October 22, 2021. This lays down that if the cost of power they purchase increases, it has to be passed on to consumers.
These rules apply to a generating company and transmission licensee to recover costs due to a change in law, from distribution companies on monthly basis. However, there is no mechanism to pass on the burden “true-up charge” to the consumers in the erstwhile APERC Regulation No 4 of 2005, which was adopted by the TSERC after bifurcation.
The Discoms said in their ARR that without a mechanism to recover the increase in cost of production from consumers, they would stand to lose with the implementation of the Central rules by the generating company or a transmission agency. This leads to huge working capital costs and also would affect the entire value chain of the power sector.
Thus the Discoms want the ERC to amend Regulation 4 of 2005 so as to put in place a mechanism for automatic passage of the burden to the consumers.
Steep hike proposed
The Discoms also proposed to increase the monthly customer charges to be collected from the power consumers. The minimum customer charges proposed to be increased are from Rs 25 to Rs 40 and the maximum customer charges proposed are Rs 80 to Rs 160. Those who consume more power have to pay higher customer charges.
Apartments have to pay more, clubbing of meters
If more than one service is provided for common usage in the same premises, multi-storeyed buildings/apartments/ flat/residential houses the consumption of all the common meters shall be clubbed and billed under LT-I(B)(ii) or LT-II(B) as applicable, the Discoms proposed. If all the meters are clubbed and billed, the users have to shell out more on power charges. Persons operating Captive Power Plants (CPPs) in parallel with TS Grid have to pay “Grid Support Charges.
Green tariff for industries like in Maharashtra
The Discoms have proposed a green tariff for industrial and commercial consumers. They adopted the Maharashtra model in fixing the green tariff. “Some of the corporate consumers of Telangana are also aiming to become zero-carbon companies. As the Discoms want to encourage companies/consumers who want to fulfill their green energy/zero carbon emission commitments, it is proposed to levy only a portion of the charge i.e. Rs 2.00/kWh as the additional premium over and above the existing retail tariffs of the consumers, as Green Tariffs.