Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The proposal by Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) to increase power tariffs to bridge the revenue gap was not agreed to by the Assam Electricity Regulatory Commission (AERC). In fact, the AERC kept the power tariffs at the present level. The Commission has taken the utmost care to protect the interests of the consumers as well as the utilities in arriving at its decision.
The Commission, after taking into consideration the submissions made by the petitioner, objections and suggestions received from respondents and stakeholders, and all other relevant materials on record, has retained the category-wise tariffs at the same level as approved in the Tariff Order for FY 2023-24, without any change in Fixed or Demand Charges and Energy Charges, except for merging the prevalent FPPPA of Rs. 1.29/kWh with the Energy Charge. Hence, though the tariff approved for Jeevan Dhara, Domestic A, Domestic B, and HT Domestic categories includes the entire FPPPA of Rs. 1.29/kWh, APDCL shall continue to bill the consumers at the prevalent tariff, and the consumers of these categories will continue to pay the same tariff (Fixed/Demand charges plus Energy charges plus a lower FPPPA) as is presently applicable, and there will be no increase in tariff for any category after merging the prevalent FPPPA. The state government has committed to continue providing the same amount of FPPPA subsidy as targeted subsidy after the merger of the FPPPA with the energy charges.
The Commission has approved an overall generation tariff of Rs 6.02 per kWh for FY 2024-25, based on the latest fuel costs. Transmission tariffs of Rs. 0.51 per kWh and SLDC charges of Rs. 155.23/MW/day have been approved for FY 2024-25.
APDCL, in their petition, prayed before the Commission for approval of 'Truing Up Gap' of Rs. 1766.09 crore, including carrying costs of Rs. 319.01 crore for FY 2022-23. APDCL has claimed an APR gap of Rs. 1437.11 crore for FY 2023-24 and a surplus of Rs. 97.26 crore for FY 2024-25.
The key reasons for such a high revenue gap in FY 2022-23 are: Increase in power purchase costs due to an increase in gas prices: Around 25% of power purchased by APDCL is sourced from gas-based stations, including all stations of APGCL except KLHEP. Due to the steep increase in gas prices, power purchase costs have also increased steeply. Distribution Loss: APDCL has reported a higher distribution loss of 16.22% as compared to the 15.00% approved by the Commission. The higher distribution losses have resulted in a higher power purchase cost of Rs. 196 crore, of which only a part, i.e., Rs. 65 crore, is passed on to the consumers; Conversion of GoA grants to equity: The State Cabinet has approved the conversion of an outstanding grant of Rs. 3359.20 crore as of March 31, 2021, to equity for APDCL. Similarly, the State Cabinet has approved the conversion of outstanding grants of Rs. 1726.86 crore and Rs. 1955.05 crore for APGCL and AEGCL, respectively. The total grants converted to equity by the state government are, thus, Rs. 7041.11 crore.
This has led to a grant conversion to equity of Rs. 2603.69 crore for APDCL from FY 2021-22 until FY 2024-25 and a grant conversion to equity of Rs. 155.24 crore and Rs. 821.81 crore for APGCL and AEGCL, respectively.
Also Read: Assam: CM asks APDCL to draw up plans for reducing power tariffs by 2026 (sentinelassam.com)
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