Amendment to Electricity Act will threaten BEST’s existence: GM...

 

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking's administration has opposed a move by the Union Power Ministry that could prevent BEST from cross-subsidising transport losses from its supply division, and allow private distributors to supply electricity to residential and commercial units in the island city.

The Union ministry has proposed an amendment to the Electricity Act 2003, which the BEST administration believes could threaten the survival of the undertaking. The Ministry plans to send the proposal for Cabinet approval soon.

Om Prakash Gupta, General Manager of BEST on Tuesday said, "I see no reason why the amendments are being made. We have sent a strong objection to the proposed amendment, as it raises questions on the survival of such an old organisation."

During a BEST committee meeting on Tuesday, Gupta asked the members from political parties to support the BEST administration. The committee has now decided to deliberate on the issue, and take it up with Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray.

The Union ministry plans to remove Sections 51 and 42 (3) of the Electricity Act. While Section 51 allows BEST to continue cross-subsidising its transport losses from the supply side, Section 42 (3) prevents private distributors from meeting supply needs of units that consume more than one megawatt of electricity. BEST and New Delhi Municipal Corporation are the only two organisations that use the special provisions in the country.

Gupta said, "Open access will take away our clients and allow private players to distribute electricity in the island city. While this will be similar to the arrangement in suburbs presently, it will go against BEST which serves the island city only."

Of BEST's 10 lakh users, 45 per cent are commercial establishments and the rest residential. Open access will take away high-end users from BEST, forcing the undertaking to raise supply charges for residential units.

Source

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After Delhi, MH to reduce electricity tariff by 15 per cent for MSEDCL consumers...

 

Nearly 21.4 million consumers of the state-run Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MahaVitaran) can expect a gift in the New Year, which happens to be an election year, too.

A Cabinet sub-committee headed by Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane has recommended an across-the-board 15 per cent reduction in existing rates. The committee has also recommended reduction in the electricity duty.

Power rate in Maharashtra is 20-50 per cent higher than other states. The panel has not considered any cut in the rate charged to Mumbai consumers by Tata Power, Reliance Infrastructure, MahaVitaran and BrihanMumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST).

If the recommendation is implemented, the state government and MahaVitaran will have to bear a burden of about Rs 2,000 crore annually. Of this, MahaVitaran’s share will be at least Rs 200 crore, while the state government will have to provide the balance through a budgetary allocation.

This will be in addition to the annual subsidy of Rs 10,500 crore provided to agricultural consumers and Rs 1,100 crore to power looms. Of this, MahaVitaran cross-subsidises industry and commercial consumers worth Rs 6,500 crore; the balance is contributed by the state government.

According to the rates effective from September, high-tension industrial consumer power rate ranges between Rs 10.51 and Rs 11.53 a unit; for high-tension commercial consumers, it is between Rs 9.46 and Rs 14.46 a unit. For low-tension industries, it is between Rs 8.07  and Rs 10.06 a unit. For high-tension agricultural consumers, the per unit tariff is Rs 3.83.

A senior minister who was part of the committee told Business Standard: “The Rane committee, which was formed in October to address issues raised by couple of parties and organisations, submitted its report on Thursday evening to the state government. The decision will be taken after the approval of state Cabinet at its meeting slated for next week.”

The minister claimed the state government’s decision has nothing to do with Aam Aadmi Party's move to cut 50 per cent tariff for those consuming below of 400 units of electricity in Delhi.

Source: Business Standard

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BEST started supplying 20 MW solar power to Mumbai...

 

With the supply of 20 MW solar power to the island city, the BEST has taken a big step towards providing green energy to its consumers. Sources said the power was being given at a price cheaper than market rates.

"We have started feeding our grid with 1.85 million units of solar power, generated in October, which is being procured through renewable energy sources. We expect to generate solar energy up to 2.58 million units every month," said BEST general manager Om Prakash Gupta.

According to MERC regulations for renewable energy purchase obligations, every utility in the state is mandated to procure certain percentage of its power requirement through renewable energy sources. For solar power, this percentage is 0.25% from 2010-11 to 2012-13 and 0.5% from 2013-14 to 2015-16.

As approved by the BEST committee in May, the power utility firm entered into a deal with M/s Welspun Energy Pvt Ltd for generating 20 MW solar power. "The BEST has taken steps to procure solar power, helping the green cause," BEST senior spokesperson A S Tamboli said.

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BEST to sign a long term PPA with Indiabulls for 300 MW…

Power India found that Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST) is planning to enter into a long term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Indiabulls Power Limited for 300 MW.

 

The move was considering the estimated exponential increase in power demand in Mumbai city over the next four-five years.

 

BEST is having a current PPA with Tata Power which was for 932 MW and at a tariff rate of Rs. 3.54 per unit is getting expired in 2016.

 

The BEST committee on Tuesday approved the signing of a power purchase agreement with Indiabulls Power for 300 megawatt. The firm will start supplying power from 2016.

 

As said by Mr. O. P. Gupta, General Manager, BEST said:

“Looking at the rate of development, we expect the power demand, catered by the BEST, to touch 1,300 megawatt by 2016. This will be the first time that we are buying power for the long term outside Tata Power”

The state government’s proposed Dharavi redevelopment plan and the construction of a business district in Wadala by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority are likely to drive this growth in the demand for electricity.

 

“The projected demand for both these projects is 300 megawatts each, but it will take time for the projects to take shape and the demand to scale up. So we have gone with the assumption that put together, the demand from these two projects would be 300 megawatts by 2016,” Gupta said.

 

As per the agreement with Indiabulls, the company will supply power at Rs 3.42 per unit as the base price for 25 years.

 

BEST will start a fresh bidding process in 2013-end for a long-term supply of 1,000 megawatts, so that it has the capacity to cater to 1,300 megawatts by 2016.

“If we need power over and above that, we will go to the power exchange or buy it from the open market. However, the price in the open market is higher,” Gupta said.

Recently, BEST had purchased 50 megawatts for Rs 4.56 from the open market to make provisions for the peak demand during summer.

Meanwhile, the BEST has decided to hike salaries of its employees after discussions with the Sharad Rao-led union, which had called a flash strike last year.

As a result, BEST will shell out about Rs 350 crore as arrears from 2006 and bear incremental expenses of about Rs 140 to Rs 150 crore every year now on.

 

 

 

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Tata Power to invest Rs 1,000 Cr to lay cables in Mumbai…

 Tata Power, India's largest private power generation company is planning to lay its own distribution cable network in the Mumbai with the investment of  around Rs 1,000 crore over the next three years.

Currently, Tata Power serves around 8 lakh consumers using the distribution netwok of BEST and Reliance Infrastructure. For this, Tata Power is charged wheeling charges by Reliance Infrastructure and BEST which it has to recover from its consumers.

 

Earlier, Tata Power was not allowed to lay parallel network in the Distribution area of Reliance Infrastructure, however after the Supreme Court order they are allowed for the same. Tata Power has put up a proposal to the MERC for laying down the network.

Meanwhile, Spark found that in a recent order of the MERC, the regulator had granted Reliance Infrastructure the license to distribute electricity in the suburbs for 25 years as the company's license was expiring on August 15.

The MERC had rejected the proposals of four other bidders, including Torrent Power, Lanco Infrastructure, MSEDCL and Indiabulls, saying they did not have their own networks in place and in "public interest" it granted Reliance Infrastructure the license.

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