States »EasPosted at: Apr 29 2021 9:39PM Odisha urges centre not to pass financial impact of any underutilized infrastructure to consumers
Bhubaneswar, Apr 29 (UNI) Odisha Energy Minister Dibya Shankar Mishra has suggested to the Union Power Minister R K Singh not to pass on the financial impact of any underutilized infrastructure to the Consumers.
In a letter to Union Power Minister, Mr Mishra has also requested to issue advisory to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission to review and align Sharing of Transmission Charges Regulations with the principles of National Electricity Policy and Tariff Policy.
Odisha meets most of its power demand from the sources located inside the State. However, it avails the necessary additional quantum from the Central Generating Stations located outside the State through the Central Transmission Network of PGCIL paying transmission charges.
Mr Mishra said over the past decade, it is observed that the National average of PGCIL Transmission Charges, which were in the range of 24 paisa per unit in FY 2011-12 has gone up to 85 paisa per unit in FY 2019-20 with a CAGR of 17 per cent.
TheNational Electricity Policy and Tariff Policy mandate the Transmission Tariff Mechanism to be sensitive to distance, direction and related to the quantum of flow, i.e. to be based on the actual utilization of the transmission system.
However, despite several amendments of CERC Sharing of Transmission Charges & Losses Regulations, there has been a continuous and steep rise in Transmission Tariffs for States like Odisha, who have ironically got most of the Generators inside the State, Mr Mishra said.
The minister said the cost of Transmission Assets discovered through competitive bidding are significantly lower than the Cost determined under the regulated (Cost-Plus) mechanism.
As a combined effect of huge underutilized capacity addition and price determined through Cost-Plus method, the Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) of PGCIL for FY 2019-20 has increased to Rs.39,000 crore from Rs.9,000 crore in FY 2011-12 with a CAGR of 21 per cent.
.In addition to these reasons, the approach to Uniform Pricing in sharing of Inter-state Transmission Charges have led to an increase in total Transmission Charges for Odisha from Rs.179 crore in FY 2011-12 to Rs.734 crore in FY 2019-20 at a CAGR of 19 per cent, resulting in rise of per Unit Transmission Charges from 24 Paisa to 102 Paisa during the said period., Mr Mishra said
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