MSEDCL seeks hike in user tariff

The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) has submitted a proposal to the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC), asking for a 36 per cent hike in end-user tariff.

A senior official from MERC said: "We have received MSEDCL's proposal and we have asked them for additional details. After we receive the details, we will issue a public notice inviting suggestions and objections from the public, and perhaps, by the end of August or early September, we will hold a public hearing on the MSEDCL's proposal."

It was reliably learnt from an industry watcher that MSEDCL has projected 32 per cent increase in their overall expenditure due to rising fuel prices and electricity which MSEDCL is buying at higher rates to meet increasing gap between demand and supply.

Besides this MSEDCL has claimed that it has undertaken Rs 12,500 crore worth of modernisation and upgradation programme for its distribution network and they need money to fund this modernisation and upgradation programme.

It was also learnt that MSEDCL has asked for hike of around 40 per cent in the tariff from industrial and commercial customers and 36 per cent from domestic consumers.

Sources in the MERC indicated that the power regulator many not grant such a massive hike demanded by the MSEDCL and instead has suggested alternative methods to substitute high cost purchases of electricity.

The power regulator has suggested to MSEDCL, high cost power purchases, amounts to putting the power in bottomless pit due to high transmission and distribution (T&D) losses and lower recovery, doesn't improve the power supply situation in the state very much.

So instead they should go for Pune model in urban centers and industrial areas as these areas have lower T&D losses and higher collection efficiency and consumer from these areas are willing to pay higher price for reliable power supply.