The tariff hike proposals made by APTransco to Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) may be held invalid and thus squashed, if the mock public hearing held by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) is any indication.
The commission held that the tariff filing of APTransco cannot be treated as the filings of the four distribution companies, which as individual licencees, are now required to file tariff proposals individually. It was also held that the details furnished with respect to the cost of delivery of power, purchases from APGenco and other sources, that the transmission and distribution losses were abnormally high and that they were being passed on to agriculture, resulting in large scale corruption.
ASCI, which has been actively involved in power sector reforms, held a mock public hearing to equip the consumer bodies to critically examine issues and effectively participate in the first-ever public hearing by APERC to be held in May. APTransco has already submitted its filing of proposed tariff (FPT). Though it was a mock session, it was held with all the seriousness by the commission consisting of Justice D Reddapppa Reddy (Retd), K R Venugopal, IAS (Retd) and I Basava Raju, former senior official of APSEB.
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Principal of ASCI, T L Shankar, IAS (Retd), himself a former chairman of APSEB, giving an introduction to the mimic session, said power reforms are intended to end monopoly and induce competition and bring in transparency and accountability.
During the session, the very locus-standi of APTransco to submit the FPT was questioned on the ground that it is not anymore incharge of the distribution of electricity in the state. It was contended that the AP government has notified the formation of four distribution companies and through GO MS 35 of March 31, 2000, has transferred to them the distribution assets and liabilities of APTransco. Consequently, it is the distribution companies that have to file the respective tariff proposals and the commission should consider them separately.
Meanwhile, APTRANSCO on which criticism is mounting as the public hearing by AP Electricity Regulatory Commission on tariff revision is drawing closer, has issued a press release in its defence.
It says a lot of initiatives towards improving transmission and distribution (T&D) systems to provide reliable power supply to all categories of consumers apart from taking steps towards better metering, billing and collections, better consumer servicing and introducing innovative new technologies, have been taken. And that a new era of 400 KV transmission has been ushered in, with test charging the double circuit line from Ghanapur to Mamidipalli near Hyderabad.
While another 400 KV substation is being erected at Nannur near Kurnool, APTRANSCO has plans to set up similar substations at Vizak, Vemagiri, Ditchipalli, Krishnapatnam, Gajwel and Chittoor within two years at a cost of Rs 1,400 crore.
Further, ongoing system improvement projects worth Rs 650 crore in Transmission and Rs 1057 crore in diustribution are being implemented and that the investments being made are five times the average annual investments made over the last one decade.