Sudarsan Maharana
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, July 2: The Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) Friday will hear a review petition filed by the state government seeking a rollback of power tariff hike in agriculture sector.
Power purchasing agencies, distribution companies and other stakeholders file their annual revenue requirements (ARR) report before OERC by November end. The regulator then makes a public hearing in February before taking a final decision on tariffs, distribution, and purchase by March for the next year.
All stakeholders including the state government and electricity consumers are allowed to lodge review pleas before OERC if they have any objection to the latter’s decisions.
In its new power tariff order for 2015-16, the regulator March 24 raised electricity charges by 20 paise per unit for general consumers while hiking the tariff by 40 paise per unit for the farm sector–the first hike in 15 years. The decision triggered a public uproar forcing the government to move the OERC to review its decision on the farm sector.
However, sources said, if the power tariff for the farm sector is eased, the load may be automatically passed on to domestic users who are already paying an additional 20 paise per unit following the new tariff revision from April 2015.
This will work out to an extra burden of `20 crore for consumers.
Sources further said that the power tariff can be easily regulated and could even be reduced if OERC directs GRIDCO – a state-run entity engaged in bulk purchase and sale of power– to diversify its sources of revenue generation.
GRIDCO purchases power from National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). However, the central utility sells power at a premium as it uses imported coal to run its facilities. This pushes the per unit production cost of power by up to `1.5.
The state government, therefore, must take up the matter with the ministry of power to direct NTPC not to depend on imported coal more than normative Plant Load Factor (PLF), especially for unwilling buyers like Orissa as the imported coal pushes the cost of power generation.
The GRIDCO should be directed not to purchase power generated from imported coal. It should rather buy it from captive power plants (CPPs) which do not cost more than `2.75 paise per unit. This is way less than the per unit cost of power generated by using imported coal which rules at `5 per unit and above, sources said.
There are also allegations of irregularities in the process of offering sops to private power producers before they meet the statutory requirements of generating power. The authorities have allegedly extended full compensations to companies like Sterlite Energy Ltd before the actual date of its commercial operation. This resulted in huge loss of revenue.
Sources said if the date of commercial operation is declared from the actual date, the heavy sum paid towards fixed cost to these firms would be easily recovered by GRIDCO.
While OERC is silent on all these issues, demands are swelling in the state for a quick solution to the tariff imbroglio that has put farmers and general consumers at a disadvantage.
