The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission has extended the deadline for submission of aggregate revenue requirement for the financial year 2015-16 by the electricity utilities – Southern and Eastern Power distribution companies – till Jan 24.
The Commission which set Jan. 12 deadline earlier had, however, decided to extend the deadline keeping in view the request made by the utilities.
The utilities, the Commission said, cited difficulties in finalising the projection of distribution cost, transmission cost and true-up for retail supply of electricity.
“Notwithstanding the extremely difficult situation in which the Commission is placed in performing its statutory duties due to non-filing of ARR/Tariff petition within the prescribed time, the present request is kept in view in finalising further action for issuance of a tariff order before the commencement of tariff year 2015-16,” the APERC said.
It warned that if the licensees failed to file the ARR/Tariff petitions before Jan. 24, the Commission would compute/estimate/forecast the ARR, expected revenue from charges and revenue gap separately for the two retail supply licensees.
The filing made by the licensees for 2014-15, latest consumption data and power purchase cost to the extent available with the licensees, tentative assessment of sales volumes and consequent impact on ARR on account of the division of the State and information from other sources, among other things, would form the basis for computations/estimates/forecast of the ARR.
The Commission would prepare full cost recovery tariff schedule (FCRTS) to recover the ARR determined and would communicate the same to the government to enable it to provide the external subsidy, if any, to different consumer categories within the period specified.
According to tentative schedule, invitation of stakeholder views/suggestions/objections would be extended on Jan 24 with deadline on Feb 14. The deadline for licensee responses is Feb. 21 and public hearings would be conducted from Feb 23 to March 4. ARR determination and FCRTS would be on March 6 and it would be communicated to the government to next day. After waiting for the government’s response till March 16, the Commission would announce the retail tariff schedule on March 23.
The stakeholders’ views including suggestions and objections would be arrived at on ARR/tariff petition filed by the licensees or the computations/estimates/forecast by the Commission as the case may be. If the licensees filed such ARR/tariff petition subsequent to Jan. 24, even then the same would be given public notice and be placed on the commission’s website to enable views/suggestions/objections to be received from stakeholders till the conclusion of public hearings.
