Chandigarh Open Access Consumers May Get Green Power @Rs 6.75/unit

JERC has put forth a discussion paper and asked the public to send their comments on the tariff. Photo-IStock

The Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for the state of Goa and Union Territories has now come up with a draft discussion paper to compute the green energy open access tariff in Chandigarh. This comes after the Union government issued a notification last year allowing green energy through open access to consumers even with less contracted demand.

In the latest discussion paper, JERC said that the total tariff for the Chandigarh green energy open access consumers comprises the average pooled power purchase cost of renewable energy, the cross-subsidy charges and the service charge covering the prudent cost of green energy. 

JERC, in its paper, proposed the power purchase cost of renewable sources at Rs 55.27 crore for the purchase of 169.51 Million Units of renewable sources for Chandigarh. Based on the calculations, the weighted average pooled power purchase cost from renewable sources stood at Rs 3.26 per unit. 

It also added 8.40% transmission and distribution losses. With the addition of T&D losses, the landed cost of electricity for discoms stood at Rs 3.56 per unit. The JERC discussion paper also added Rs 1.11 per unit as a cross-subsidy surcharge and Rs 0.86 per unit as a distribution service charge. It also proposed to add Rs 1.23 per unit as the backing down cost. With the addition of all charges and surcharges, the final applicable green energy tariff stood at Rs 6.75 per unit. 

The JERC paper also proposed incremental green energy charges at Rs 1.65 per unit for the residents of Chandigarh. These incremental green energy charges will apply to consumers over and above their normal tariffs.  

Justifying the charges for the renewable power consumers of Chandigarh, the JERC paper said, “The Cross Subsidy Surcharge (CSS) for utility has been factored in, taking into account the Maximum CSS applicable to utility, as stipulated in the approved Retail Supply Tariff Order for the FY 2023-24 which is Rs. 1.11/kWh,”

Talking about the service charges of discoms, it said, “The contribution of other components of ARR excluding power purchase cost and Transmission Charges in ACoS (approved by the Commission in Retail Supply Tariff Order for FY 2023-24) has been worked out as Distribution Service Charges covering prudent cost of distribution licensee for supplying power to the consumers which works out to be Rs. 0.86/kWh (i.e., Rs. 143.50 Crore of Other ARR components /Sales of 1,674.13 MUs*10)”

The Commission has put forth the draft discussion paper for public review and asked the stakeholders and public to send their comments within 21 days.