: After missing the January deadline, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has directed the city’s distribution companies to file their petitions for annual power tariff revision latest by April 7.
However, there seems to be a lot of confusion among the discoms over drafting their petitions as Friday onwards they will no longer be guided by any tariff regulation.
The Multi Year Tariff (MYT) Regulations, 2011 which was extended for the second consecutive year in 2015 will expire on Thursday. But, the DERC (Composite Terms and Conditions for Tariff & Accounting) Regulations, 2015, which is to replace the MYT Regulations, are yet to be notified by the regulator.
DERC member B.P. Singh said, “The discoms were asked by the regulator to submit their 2016-17 petitions along with a business plan of up to March 2018 based on the draft DERC (Composite Terms and Conditions for Tariff & Accounting) Regulations, 2015. However, they failed to file the same within the first deadline after which they had sought an extension.”
But, the discoms are of the view that filing petitions on the basis of “draft” regulations is not legally possible.
“We are filing the present petition as per the MYT Regulations, 2011 as the 2015 regulations have not been notified till now,” said an official of Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL).
The two BSES discoms thought the MYT Regulations would be extended by one year. “But now it seems that we will have to file on the basis of the draft regulations, although ambiguity still remains about many aspects,” said a BSES official.
This confusion is leading to inordinate delay in the process of tariff determination as usually, petitions are submitted latest by the end of January every year. However, the DERC ruled out the possibility of extending MYT Regulations and said that the draft regulations will be notified once all petitions are received from the discoms.
“Unlike the MYT regulations, which has to be reviewed every three years, the draft regulations, 2015 once notified will be a permanent framework. The DERC Regulation is very vital as it includes tariff and accounting frameworks for not only the distribution sector, but also for generation and transmission,” said an official of the power regulator.
For the first time, the new regulations will also include accounting of the discoms. For instance, it is proposed that any financial loss on account of underperformance with respect to AT&C loss level targets shall be to the licencee’s account.
Confusion among discoms as they can no longer rely on tariff regulations 2011
