Power purchase cost up, but Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission rules out hike in tariff

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

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Chandigarh, February 16

Despite the rise in power purchase costs, the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) has once again kept the retail power tariff rate the same while meeting the expenditure with efficiency gains like reduction in distribution losses.

Reining in distribution losses

• The focus has been on reducing the line losses and these have come down to 13.43 per cent, which used to be 25 to 30 per cent during previous regimes
• The commission directed that “at no point of time the percentage of defective meters exceed 2 per cent limit” and called for expediting the installation of smart meters
• The distribution firms have come under scanner over the non-replacement of defective meters and provisional billing

Energy charges (Category-1)

0-50 units/month Rs 2 per unit

51-100 units Rs 2.50 per unit

(for consumption up to 100 units per month)

However, the commission has pulled up the Discoms over a higher transformer failure rate and said the failure to reduce it would attract a penalty. The distribution companies have also come under scanner over the non-replacement of defective energy meters and provisional billing.

The Commission observed that the failure rate of transformers in urban and rural areas of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) and Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) during 2021-22 was 5.63 per cent and 8.69 per cent and 5.03 per cent and 9.46 per cent, respectively, thus crossing the maximum limit prescribed (below 3% in urban and below 6 % in rural). For the first half of 2022-23, April to September of 2022, the transformer damage rate was 3.38 per cent and 5.66 per cent for the UHBVN in urban and rural areas respectively. It was 3.36 per cent and 6.60 per cent for DHBVN in urban and rural areas, respectively.

“The higher rate of damage indicates mainly poor maintenance, application of higher size fuses, and no proper earthing of transformers, etc on the distribution network,” commented the Commission’s bench, comprising chairperson RK Pachnanda and member Naresh Sardana.

The commission directed that “at no point of time the percentage of defective meters exceed 2 per cent limit” and called for expediting the installation of smart meters.

As per the submissions of Discoms, the provisional billing in the DHBVN was 6.37 per cent in last December, including 2.62 per cent defective meters and for the UHBVN, it was 3.76 per cent, including 0.86 per cent defective meters. The Commission observed that the provisional billing in Discoms was on the higher side as the permissible limit was 0.1 per cent as per the regulations.

“There should be no bill rendered on average basis for more than two billing cycles, failing which consumer shall be entitled to claim compensation,” said the Commission.

The distribution losses in the case of UHBVNL came down from 31.49 per cent in 2015-16 to 13.96 per cent and are projected at 14 per cent for 2022-23. In the case of DHBVNL, it was 24.47 per cent in 2015-16 which was reduced to 13.55 per cent in 2021-22 and is projected at 14 per cent for 2022-23. The commission observed that distribution loss reduction is one of the key factors for financial turnaround of distribution licensees.