OERC hearing next month on power tariff hike

With the hike in power tariff in the state being inevitable, the Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) is gearing up to complete the procedural formalities for the same.

The commission, which had invited objections from the general public on the revision in power tariff, will hold its first hearing on the issue in the first week of February.

In its hearing scheduled for the first week of February, the commission will take a view on the issue of hike in power tariff and decide on the percentage of hike, a senior OERC official told Business Standard.

He hinted that the revised power tariff would be applicable from April 1 this year.

OERC had recently held a consultative workshop in the city among all the stakeholders to arrive at a consensus on the issue of raising power tariff.

It may be noted that Orissa is the only state in the country where power tariff has remained constant for the past eight years.

However, the hike in power tariff has been necessitated by the power shortage in the state. Orissa which had the distinction of being a power surplus state, has been grappling with power crisis.

The state is facing a power shortage of 900 MW during the evening peak hours (5 pm to 10 pm), 700 MW during the morning peak hours (6 am to 10 am) and 200 MW in the remaining 15 hours.

The peak power requirement in the state is pegged at 3000 MW while the power requirement during the non-peak hours is around 2500 MW.

The acute shortage of power is set to continue at least till the onset of the next monsoon (July 2010) and the general shortage in power is likely to persist up to 2013-14.

With the state grappling with a power shortfall, Grid Corporation of Orissa Limited (Gridco), the state power utility has to buy power at a higher cost to tide over the power shortage and this situation demands that the consumers need to pay more.

Gridco has purchased power at 1.85 paise per unit during April-September 2009 against the average procurement cost of 1.22 paise per minute approved by OERC.

Meanwhile, the power distribution companies have suggested for load regulation in various feeders to tide over the prevailing power shortfall.

The distribution utilities have suggested that all the 11 KV feeders except the feeders supplying to the essential service loads are to be divided into five groups.

Each group of feeders is to be regulated for one hour each in the morning and evening peak hours, as an exercise of equitable power regulation.