Wide range of demands and recommendations were put forth before the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) during its public hearing on tariff revision held in the city on Wednesday.
A three-member panel of TNERC headed by its chairman S. Akshayakumar, members C. Rajagopal and T. Prabhakara Rao heard grievances and suggestions from public and various trade bodies regarding tariff revision.
The current power tariff in Tamil Nadu was fixed by TNERC on December 11, 2014 which came into effect from December 12, 2014.
More than 50 speakers put forward their concerns and demands regarding the tariff revision.
S. Ravikumar of Coimbatore and Tirupur District Micro and Cottage Entrepreneurs Association said that various forums had sought for not increasing electricity tariff in three public hearings held in the last five years. He said that the tariff was increased despite the demand.
“Tariff for MSMEs (tariff III-B) which stood at ₹ 4.10 per unit five years back has increased by 100 % became ₹ 7.30 to ₹ 7.80 now,” said Mr. Ravikumar.
He also requested TNERC to take measures to address power theft and line loss of electricity during transmission which is between 20 and 30 %.
D. Balasundaram, past president of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that reduction in the cost of purchasing power should be passed on the consumer. “There is has been a reduction in the cost of purchasing power since 2014 due to factors like fall in the price of coal. We have also absorbed more power from wind energy last year which is cheap. But customers were not benefited from the fall in the purchase cost,” he said. K. Ilango, Secretary of Tamilnadu Electricity Consumers Association, said that many aspects of the Electricity Act 2003 and the National Tariff Policy are not followed by TNERC and Tangedco.
“The National Tariff Policy specifies that the cross subsidy surcharge should be a maximum of 20 % of the tariff. In Tamil Nadu this has never been followed and is more than 50 % (₹ 3.50/unit),” said Mr. Ilango and added that grievances redress mechanism is very ineffective.
TNERC conducted the hearing based on tariff petition filed by Tangedco, Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation Limited (TANTRANSCO) and State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC).
The tariff petition filed by Tangedco proposed no tariff increase but an adjustment in the subsidy without affecting consumers for 2017-18. While TANTRANSCO did not propose any increase in the transmission charges payable by Long Term Open Access customers and Long Term Open Access customers, SLDC sought for determination of Aggregate Revenue Requirement for 2017-18 and 2018-19.
