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NEW DELHI : The Delhi government plans to introduce a time-of-day tariff system for charging electric vehicles (EVs) to incentivize users.
The Delhi government is planning to introduce a time-of-day tariff system for charging EVs to incentivize users. Consultations are currently in an initial stage, and the system may be introduced in a year’s time, Jasmine Shah, vice-chairperson of the Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi, said in an interview.
“Right now, ToD (time-of-day) is not there on charging electric vehicles. As the number of EVs increases, grid stability is also important. If someone wants to charge at 10 pm when Delhi’s power load increases, do it at higher prices, but if you can charge your car at 2 a.m., then it would cost less," he said.
Noting that the system would be implemented through the separate EV metres provided to the consumers, he said: “EV tariff in Delhi is ₹4.5, commercial tariff ₹7.5 and domestic is obviously much less for low users, but if you have heavy-duty domestic consumption then the highest tariff would be ₹6-6.5. It makes sense for you to rather than consumer your domestic power, which is at ₹6, put up an EV meter at ₹4.5."
He said that discussions are at an initial stage and the regulator and the power discoms need to come on board for the system to be implemented. Shah said that with the rapid growth in EV adoption in the national capital, the time-of-day tariff system is the need of the hour.
On the estimated timeline for implementation of the system, he said: “My guess is probably in a year’s time."
The action plan of EV charging infrastructure for 2022-2025 for the national capital said that the state’s transport department would work with discoms to recommend measures like ‘time-of-day’ tariffs and ‘managed charging’ to the regulatory commission.
On 18 August, Mint reported that the Centre plans to extend the time-of-day power tariff system to retail power customers. Currently, this system, under which electricity costs more or less depending on the time of the day, is available for some commercial and industrial users.
Under this system, power consumption during peak-demand hours costs more, and during lean-demand hours costs less. The plans to incentivize consumers and lower the load on the grid come at a time EV sales are picking up, and the national capital has emerged out of the record high power demand during April and May.
According to estimates, nearly 26,000 EVs were sold in the national capital in the first half of 2022. A recent report by the India Energy Storage Alliance estimated that demand for electric vehicles in India may grow by up to 49% per year between 2021 and 2030.
According to the Delhi government, sales of EVs in the state averaged more than 10% of the overall monthly sales in 2022 since the launch of the Delhi EV policy. In the last two years, Delhi has registered over 62,000 EV sales. The Delhi EV policy was notified in August 2020. The Delhi EV policy targets 25% of all new vehicle registrations by 2024 to be EVs.