APGenco wanted four per cent escalation in its tariff for the years 2009-14. APGenco’s tariff is for the power to be supplied by the generation corporation to the Discoms. Though the power purchase agreement pertained to 2009 to 2014, the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) did not convene public hearing all these five years.
The tariff is about to expire in March next and the APERC held a public hearing here on Friday, a few months before the PPA gets lapsed.
Presenting the Genco’s argument, managing director K Vijayanand wanted the ERC to fix the tariff with four per cent escalation. He said that ERC was allowing 5.72 per cent escalation on operation and maintenance.
Vijayanand further said that the pay revision commitment should be considered while fixing the tariff for 2009-14. However, the Discoms collected the electricity charges from the consumers for the same period. If the Genco’s tariff order was finalised by the ERC, then the over and above tariff collected by Discoms would be collected from consumers in the subsequent bills.
Vijayananda also said that the capital cost of several projects has gone up due to various reasons. The capital cost was increased against the original estimate for RTPP stage-2, NTTPS-4, KTPP-1, Priyadarshini Jurala, Pochampad and others. The cost escalation should also be taken into consideration.
Raising objections to this, farmers’ leader Cherukuri Venugopala Rao demanded that those who lost lands for the construction of thermal power stations should be given jobs. He alleged that the thermal power stations were not following the guidelines and fly ash became a major problem.
Power expert Venugopal said that it was ridiculous to conduct a public hearing on the tariff for 2009-14 now. The tariff order should not be fixed for five years and it should be fixed for 35 years as per the PPAs. He wanted the government to accord priority for the APGenco in allotting fuel and also sanctioning new projects. The APERC would announce its tariff order soon.
NEW TARIFF: Meanwhile, the APERC extended the time for Discoms to file ARRs before December 10. The Discoms will file ARRs every year to fix the retail tariff to be collected from power consumers. As there was no fuel surcharge adjustment (FSA) now, the tariff may be increased considerably, sources said.
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