In a bid to prevent creation of surplus power, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has directed industries in the Capital to shift their activities to off-peak hours.
As an incentive, the regulator has decided to offer 20 per cent rebate to the complying industrial or commercial connections.
According to the DERC, the directive will help stabilise availability of electricity and put a cap on excessive and expensive power procured by distribution companies.
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To make more such commercial/industrial power connections eligible for Time of Day (ToD) metering, the DERC has reduced the sanctioned load per consumer from 50 kW to 25 kW.
“The only way we could bring more consumers into ToD model was by lowering the eligibility of the sanctioned load. It was seen that huge amount of power procured remains at surplus during off-peak hours, whereas during peak hours the consumption always touches maximum. With more commercial consumers shifting their activities to off-peak hours, power consumption activity will be uniform throughout 24 hours,” explained P.D. Sudhakar, DERC chairman.
This year, the regulator has also revised time slots for both peak and off-peak hours. While earlier peak hours were between 3 p.m. to midnight, it has now been revised to two slots – 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight. Those who consume power during these slots will have to pay a surcharge of 20 per cent. The revised off-peak hour slots are 3 a.m. to 9 a.m., which earlier was midnight to 6 a.m.
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Asked whether the commission was considering extending ToD to domestic consumers, Mr. Sudhakar said it was possible but added that “huge investment” would be required to upgrade the existing power transmission infrastructure.
A concept borrowed from European countries, ToD also known as Time of Usage (ToU) or Seasonal Time of Day (SToD) metering involves dividing the day, month and year into tariff slots. At peak load slots, rates are higher, whereas at off-peak load periods tariffs are low.
Experts say the DERC’s decision on ToD will also help the discoms financially as they often have to procure additional power at very high rates to meet peak hour demand.
Official figures state that around 80-90 per cent of the total revenue of discoms goes into purchasing power from central and State government-owned entities at rates determined by the central and state regulators.
The regulator has decided to offer 20 per cent rebate to the complying industrial connections