The Puducherry Electricity Department has decided to increase power tariffs for domestic, high tension (commercial) and industrial categories of consumers.
The revised tariff structure for 2022-23, which will come into effect from April 1, has been sent for approval to the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for the State of Goa and Union Territories.
The revised tariff will have an impact on the monthly bills of over 3.5 lakh domestic consumers in the Union Territory of Puducherry as the average power tariff is expected to be broadly in the range of 35 paise a unit. The maximum hit would be those consuming above 100 units a month, sources say.
The Puducherry Electricity Department caters to 4.85 lakh consumers, of which 3.58 lakh are in the domestic category, 56,050 under the commercial category, while 7,029 are agriculture connections.
In order to meet the revenue gap projection of about ₹478.04 crore for 2022-23, the Department has proposed the tariff hike while retaining the regulatory surcharge at 5%.
For domestic and cottage sector consumers in the 0-100 units slab, the fixed monthly charge is unchanged at ₹40 while the energy charge has been raised from ₹1.50 per kWh to ₹1.90 per kWh. For the 101-200 units per month category, the tariff has been raised from ₹2.60 per kWH to ₹2.75 kWH. For 200-300 units per month and above 300 units per month, the tariff remains unchanged at ₹6.05 per kWh. The fixed monthly charges for these three segments remained unchanged at ₹45 per month.
In the commercial category, the fixed monthly charge remains unchanged at ₹75 per month in the 0-100, 101-250, and above 250 units per month consumption categories.
In the HT Commercial (for contract demand up to 5,000 kVA), the charge has been hiked from ₹5.45 per kVAh to ₹5.50 per kVAh.
For HT industries (11kv/22kV/33kV), the fixed monthly charges remains at ₹420/kVA/month while th energy charge has been raised from the existing ₹5.30 kVAh to ₹5.35 kVAh. For HT Commercial, the energy charge has been hiked from ₹5.45 kVAH to ₹5.50 kVAh.
“One of the major changes is the introduction of Time of Day (ToD) tariff for HT/EHT category consumers for different periods of the day –- normal period, peak load period and off-peak load period. For normal period (6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) the normal rate of charges will be billed while 120% of the normal rate will be billed from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. For off-peak load period (10 p.m.to 6 a.m.) 90% of the normal rate will be billed,” said an official.
