Around 7.5 lakh people have applied for new electricity connections to the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) in the month of February after the company drastically lowered its entry level cost for the new customers. Encouraged by the overwhelming response from the customers, the WBSEDCL is gearing itself to meet the sudden rise in demand for new connections which may touch to 15 laths by May.
"The response has been terrific. The present trend indicates that by May, 2011 we will be able to add another 30 laths to our present consumer base," says Anuran Gotha, the Director (R&T) of WBSEDCL. At present the total consumer strength of the WBSEDCL stands at 85 lakh.
The WBSEDCL has recently lowered its fees for new connections to attract mostly small enterprises and other households in rural areas. Earlier, the company used to charge the small enterprises for a new connection of 6 KW somewhat between Rs. 16,596 to Rs.40, 615, depending on the distance from the pole. Now, they will have to pay Rs.10, 000 only.
For the households, who want a connection of 0.2 KW will have to pay Rs.200 only instead of the earlier fee between Rs.3346 to Rs.4146 and for those who need a connection of 0.2 KW to 0.6 KW, will have to pay now Rs.400 only against the earlier rate of Rs.4131 to Rs.6032. Gotha admits that most of the new applicants are from rural areas and they are spread over throughout the state.
The company has already lined up a number of private players to give connections to the new applicants. According to the WBSEDCL officials, most of the 1.5 lakh applicants will be given connections by May-June this year.
The WBSEDCL has also made a contingency plan to meet the rising demand of power in the state during the summer. Last summer, the state had to suffer a spate of power cut during the May-June as the WBSEDCL could not buy additional power because of the high cost in trading. This time the WBSEDCL has arranged to meet half of the rising demand through power-swap with states like Meghalaya, Tamilnadu, Delhi and Haryana.
The rest will be bought in trading. During the summer the peak demand of the state reaches more than 5000 MW creating a deficit of 600-700 MW.
