The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) is organising its State Advisory Committee (SAC) meeting in the virtual mode on September 20 to discuss ways to reduce the cost of service, streamline power purchases, improve performance of the DISCOMs and plan better implementation of demand-side management and energy conservation and energy efficiency projects.
APERC Chairman Justice (retd.) C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy and members P. Rajagopal Reddy and Thakur Ram Singh and members of the SAC will take part in the deliberations.
According to an official release, the APERC is striving to maintain a balance between the interest of consumers and DISCOMs and focusing on evolving a consumer-centric approach to the power sector.
The APERC Chairman has laid emphasis on the availability of reliable and affordable power that would facilitate rapid agricultural and industrial growth which would help spur economic development of the State. He also stressed the need for APERC and power utilities to work in tandem to achieve the goals.
‘True-up’ charges
It was stated that the APERC permitted the DISCOMs to recover the ‘true-up’ charges amounting to ₹3,669 crore for the period between 2015 and 2019, keeping their financial distress in view.
As part of the efforts to improve consumer services, the APERC amended the Standards of Performance regulations to ensure that the DISCOMs paid automatic compensation to aggrieved consumers for certain services failures.
The APERC has also cleared various investment proposals submitted by the DISCOMs and AP-Transco for strengthening the T&D network in order to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the consumers.
