Discoms play Santa, tariff hike in freeze

HYDERABAD: Christmas has arrived early in Telangana, with

discoms

making it clear on Thursday that there will be no

power tariff hike for 2018-19 financial year

.

Over 1.2 crore consumers in the state heaved a sigh of relief after the

Central Power Discom

(CPDCL) and

Northern Power Discom

(NPDCL) submitted tariff proposals to Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) for the next financial year on Thursday without increasing power charges for any category. The Annual Revenue Requirement for the year has been pegged at ₹35,714 crore while actual revenue is ₹26,014 crore. The deficit is pegged at ₹9,700 crore.

The discoms have proposed that tariffs for 2017-18 should be retained for the next fiscal. “We submitted the same tariff proposals that were notified by ERC for 2017-18. Electricity charges have been kept at the same level and regarding bridging the deficit, the ERC will take a final call,” G Raghuma Reddy, CMD, CPDCL, told TOI.

With the introduction of 24-hour power supply to the agriculture sector and with additional power consumption by Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited, the demand for power has increased. The 24-hour power supply to agriculture sector is pegged to cost ₹2,550 crore.

The increase in power purchase cost for meeting additional demand from other categories is pegged at ₹2,404 crore. Transmission network charges are estimated to be ₹1,223 crore. Power purchase costs, including pension liabilities, for 2018-19 are pegged at ₹27,903 crore against ₹24,421 crore for the ongoing year. Discoms have worked out the average cost of supply for the next year at ₹6.42 per unit. Energy requirement of the state is estimated at 64,291Million Units (MU) while availability is at 67,573 MU. ERC will hold public hearings in at least three cities in the state for objections from stakeholders before pronouncing the final tariff order in March 2018.


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