Discoms In Gujarat To Levy Rs 0.87/Kwh As Surcharge For Open Access

By Saur News Bureau/ Updated On Thu, Oct 19th, 2023

The Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC), in its suo motto order, has specified the additional surcharge rate for the open access consumers in the state. As per the latest order of the state, it has specified Rs 0.87 per KwH applicable for open access services between October 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024.

It comes after the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) and four discoms in the state filed a petition before the State Commission in 2018 for revision in the formula for the computation of additional surcharge applicable for the future period for open access. It was also followed by petitions by the Kutch Industries Associations and Federation of Gujarat in this matter.

The GERC, on August 8, 2022, passed an order of revised methodology for calculating additional surcharge for open access. It also asked the GUVNL to submit it the data, certified by the State Load Dispatch Centre and Chartered Accountant, for each of six months from October to March and from April to September.

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“The Commission decided that the said order shall be effective for calculation of the additional surcharge to be made applicable from 01.10.2022. Further, vide the said Order, it was decided that the Additional Surcharge shall be determined by the Commission on the submitted data for the subsequent 6 months period, i.e. the Additional Surcharge determined on the basis of data for April to September of a particular year shall be applicable for April to September period of next year and so on,” the order said, while talking about open access connections in the state.

The GERC order said that it received the required data from GUVNL and other discoms on the matter. “…Additional Surcharge is worked out at Rs. 0.87/ kWh…applicable for the period of October 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024. While calculating Additional Surcharge, to work out energy supplied to the general body of consumers out of scheduled energy for meeting the requirement of the general body of consumers, T & D losses of 14.13% i.e. lower of (i) normative T&D losses approved by the Commission for the year pertaining to data i.e. FY 2022-23 (14.88%) and (ii) latest trued up T & D losses for the four State Discoms as a whole i.e. FY 2021-22 (14.13%) is considered as decided in the Order dated 30.08.2022,” the order said.

GERC also said that further, while calculating Additional Surcharge, to work out network-related costs paid by open access consumers through demand charges, a percentage of 7.14% will be considered, as depicted in Para 16.5 of the Order dated 30.08.2022.