Where does an electricity consumer fit in the power sector reforms now underway in the country? asked Veda Vyas, in his capacity as a consumer. He works in the State Electricity Department.
Little to takeA and B sign contracts to serve C, the consumer, who has no say in any of the contracts, the power supply quality nor the tariffs at which power is supplied to him. And shouldn’t someone put a cap on the power tariffs that gets traded and sold through energy exchanges, he asked.
At a lively discussion on Takeaways from The Electricity Amendment Bill, 2014, hosted by Urja Gyan Foundation and Indian Energy Exchange Ltd, when Vyas raised this query, he was given an explanation by Usha Ramachandra of ASCI that electricity regulators are there to address consumer concerns.
Another panellist said the power tariff structure in the country in various States are basically decided on votes and notes and not so much on ground realities.
Shailendra Dubey, Chairman, All India Power Engineers Federation, cited the case of five districts in Uttar Pradesh, which get 24x7 power supply, but there the losses are estimated to be about 55-60 per cent. The losses of Discoms, which were about ₹43,000 crore in 2003-04 have now shot up to ₹3 lakh crore. Some major restructure is needed for course correction, he felt.
On the move to offer networks to private sector for transmission, Dubey said the Government would have to consider setting up one incumbent company and then offer permission for its use. However, several States, including Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Panneerselvam is opposed to such a move.
D Radhakrishna of Urja Gyan Foundation, said consumers need choices. But there could also be the possibility of cartelisation in some cases. “There is need for clarity in the case of consumers accessing power of more than 1 MW. This poses problems of supply. Then there could be aggregators who could help supply say about 15 MW or 20 MW,” Rajesh K Mediratta, Director, IEX, said.