Staff Reporter

 

Power tariff in Maharashtra would increase in new financial year as Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) is seeking additional revenue of Rs 48,060 crore to cover-up the revenue gap for two financial years and monetary shortfall expected in current control year period. A summary of the multi-year tariff petition filed by the company with MERC reflects that energy charges would get lower, but it is only upto first 100 units and that too very marginally. Otherwise from 100 units onwards, the average rise in tariff is expected to be in range of 3 to 7 per cent, and herein lies the game as maximum consumers fall in 100 to 300 units usage category that will see charges rise by around 9.95 per cent compared to current billing. Giving rationale for the tariff hike, MSEDCL said the revision is necessitated in fixed and energy charges to meet the inflation and additional costs that have arisen due to increase in power purchase costs.

 

The risen cost is also attributed to coal blending due to shortfall of domestic coal, change in law claims, increase in MSPGCL, PGCIL costs, NPCIL tariff revision, change in consumer mix and its impact on revenue, etc. It also highlighted that industrial tariffs have been set at non-agri ACoS to reduce their cross-subsidy burden. The cross-subsidy for most of consumer category is gradually being reduced to bring it close to non-agri ACoS.Energy expert Mahendra Jichkar dubbed it as very unfair on part of MSEDCL to seek hike in energy tariff as already the consumers in Maharashtra are paying one of the highest charges in the country. Last year alone, the State witnessed one of the highest tariff hike wherein the increase was about 37 per cent across board. On top of that for second consecutive year, the company is going for hike is beyond one’s understanding. What was expected from the distribution company was substantial reduction in the distribution losses that would have negated need for tariff hike which however is missing. As to Time of Day (ToD)the power consumption during the day time, from 9 am to 5 pm, is going to be charged at lower rate but ToD usage reading depends on meters.

 

The currently meters at households are not equipped for the same. In short, the move is meant to push affixing of smart meters at households to which people in Maharashtra are opposed, MSEDCL has filed its multi-year tariff petition with Maharashtra Energy Regulatory Commission (MERC) for covering-up the revenue gap for financial year 2022-23 and 2023-24. Further, the company is also seeking provisional true-up of for financial year 2024-25, additionally the projected revenue gap for 2025-26 to 2029-30. Jichkar said a comparison reveals that in 0-100 category, the difference would be 0.85 per cent from next year owing to lowering of energy charges from Rs 4.71/kWh at present to Rs 4.37 (proposed). But on the other hand, the wheeling charges could rise from Rs. 1.17 currently to Rs. 1.46 from April 1, 2025 but that would be compensated with lowering in variable charges from current Rs 5.88 to proposed Rs 5.83.

 

In 101-300 units slab, the energy charges at present are Rs 10.29 and would rise to Rs 11.147 that effectively means an average increase of 9.95 per cent in comparison. The wheeling charges would also rise from Rs 117 to Rs 1.46 and variable charges from Rs 11.46 to Rs 12.60 and along with it the fixed charges are also sought to be increased from Rs 128 currently to Rs 135 from April 1 onwards. Similarly, in 301-500 units slab the final difference in bill would be 7.82 per cent and in 501-1000 units, the changes would be on upward side about 7.19 per cent. MSEDCL mentioned that it envisioned to be energy surplus in the each year of the control period. The reasons quoted for same is constraints in operating the generating plants below the Technical minimum level. So, MSEDCL intends to sell the surplus energy over Energy Exchange. The distribution company patted itself on its back stating the distribution losses to the lowest possible level and referred to Resource Adequacy Report, 2024, that was submitted to the commission on October 15th 2024. Distribution loss percentage is forecasted from FY 2024-25 to FY 2034-35 based on the Time Series Model (SARIMA) trained onmonthly data of distribution losses from FY 2010-11 to FY 2023-24, excluding the COVID-19 years. Furthermore, the RA projections are aggregated with EHV sales. For the 5th control period, MSEDCL has projected losses at distribution level utilising only distribution sales.