Odisha electricity regulator begins public hearing on tariff hike

The Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) has started public hearing on the pleas of power companies on electricity tariff revision for the year of 2018-19. On the first day of the hearing, two power generation companies—Odisha Hydropower Corporation (OHPC) and Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC)—kept their views before the commission. Both of these companies urged the OERC to hike power tariff. Prabhakar Mohanty, director (finance) of OHPC, said they appealed to the commission to increase power generation tariff from 85.13 paisa to 98.57 paisa per unit to meet its increased expenditure. "We have showed five major reasons including burden of seventh pay commission salary, installation of new infrastructures and interest rate," he added. OPGC also showed several reasons before the commission to increase their power generation tariff from 196.26 paisa to 226.87 paisa per unit of electricity. One of the major reasons was new reformative measures for development of OPGC, said a senior company official.