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States are willing to consider a proposal to reduce electricity tariffs through rationalised subsidies and pooling the power that NTPC supplies, said Piyush Goyal, Minister of State for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy, and Mines.
Speaking at a press briefing on the day two of the Conference of Power, Renewable Energy, and Mines Ministers of States/UTs here in Delhi, Goyal said, “NTPC has proposed to pool the generated power and this will significantly lower purchase costs for state government-run power distribution companies.” This proposal is being considered by the States and a final call will be taken by them, he added.
Under this concept, the Fixed Charges (Capacity Charges) of all NTPC Stations shall be pooled based on per MW basis which means all States would pay at the same rate of fixed charges post pooling in terms of rupee crore per MW.
The pooling will also ensure only marginal increase in fixed cost liability for new capacity addition. NTPC assess that this will effectively reduce the average energy charge rate (ECR) of all NTPC stations and benefit all Sates.
Goyal also said that rationalising power tariffs was also discussed at length during the conference. He said, “Multiple tariff structures have become a reason of corruption in some centres. All States have agreed to consider changes in their power tariff structures”.
He elaborated on the Bihar model where power tariffs have been aligned as per generation cost of power and good economic principles. The consumer is subsidised by the State government, but the subsidy component is notified by the government in a transparent manner. Tripura has a similar model in place, he added.
State governments also signed Memorandum of Agreements (MoAs) for purchase of 1000 MW wind power under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s first wind auction. The Power distribution companies (Discoms) of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi, Odisha and Assam signed the MoAs with PTC India, the trading company.
As per the MoAs, the Discoms of UP will buy 449.9 MW, Bihar – 200 MW, Jharkhand – 200 MW, Delhi (BSES Rajdhani) – 100 MW, Assam – 50 MW and Odisha – 50 MW of wind power for meeting their non-solar Renewable Purchase Obligation.
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