Bhubaneswar: Various power generating and distribution companies (discoms) have once again approached the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) seeking revision of electricity tariff and the hearings are scheduled to start from February 5.
All the parties, including Grid Corporation of Odisha (GRIDCO), North Eastern Electricity Supply Company of Odisha Limited (NESCO) and Odisha Power Generation Corporation Limited (OPGC) will present their arguments on the issue when the OERC sits for hearing that will continue till February 13.
As per reports, cumulative energy bill (bulk supply tariff) of Rs 6,624 crore is pending against the discoms, including Rs 1,811 crore of Western Electricity Supply Company of Odisha (WESCO), Rs 1,230 crore of NESCO, Rs 1,059 crore of Southern Electricity Supply Company of Odisha Limited (SOUTHCO) and Rs 2,422 crore of CESU.
The companies have appealed to increase the rates by 5 to 10 percent for Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR), informed GRIDCO authorities.
"The OERC will conduct hearing on the annual revenue requirement of various power generating and distribution companies along with that of State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC) and will announce its decision in coming March," said Director (Regulatory Affairs), OERC, Priyabrata Patnaik.
"GRIDCO, OHPC, OPTCL, OPGC and distribution companies have filed an application for their annual revenue requirement. We will ask for a hike of 5-10 percent but the commission will decide," said Manas Kumar Das, Director (Commercial), GRIDCO.
On the other hand, the Odisha Electricity Consumers’ Association (OECA) has opposed the demand for power tariff hike. It said that excess amount of electricity is consumed due to transmission losses and it is the responsibility of the discoms to control it. But the discoms are not taking any steps to address the issue and are trying to pass their burden onto the consumers.
"Even if the company is unable to cover the loss, we will not tolerate if the burden is passed onto the consumer. We will not allow tariff hikes and will approach the court," said Ramesh Chandra Sathpathy, President, OECA.
The OERC had hiked the power tariff last year. While the power tariff for first 50 units remained unchanged at Rs 2.50 per unit, it was increased by 10 paisa per unit for subsequent units.