In a bid to address the impending issues related to power supply to the industry PHD Chamber Uttarakhand Chapter led by chairman SP Kochhar met with Principal Secretary Energy Umakant Panwar and MD UPCl SS Yadav on Wednesday.
The unscheduled tripping is the most concerning issue of the industry as stated by Anil Taneja. To this the immediate call was taken by principal secretary and MD UPCl for Sela-Qui where a 220KVA substation which was approved long back. The instructions have been made to the concerning staff for doing the necessary action and get the earmarked land allotted for substation, right during the meeting with chamber. Apart from this MD UPCl took some immediate measures for issues of connectivity for the big ticket consumer company accompanying the delegation.
The increased tariffs are also having an impact on open access rates. Continuous supply surcharges @15 per cent, electricity duty & green cess are also applicable on quantum taken form open access. On the other hand benefit accruing because of Open Access system in the form of voltage supply rebate @2.5 per cent on actual energy charges has not been passed on to the industry for Open access quantum.
Ironically, Union Government’a ambitious scheme UDAY is to bring down the cost in the entire eco-system of power, coal, and renewable energy, Uttarakhand so called Energy State with relatively lower costs of power supply, should be working towards reducing prices.
As per administration & UPCl the hikes are inevitable because of the overall increase in costs of procurement/ production and distribution. The additional costs of duty and green cess are not in the preview of UPCl. Dr Panwar stated that although the hike in duty has been done after a gap of 14 yrs but still the a representation to regulator will be made to consider gradual increase in duty or defer the collection to 3 years. He stated that UPCl is investing in new technologies to increase efficiency and there is inflation factor due to which there are cost implications. He also stated that the hike is minimal as the benefit of reduced T&D losses and optimization of costs. The T&D losses have been reduced to quit an extend bringing Uttarakhand from 29th position to 7th at the national level in last 2 yrs and there are further proactive measures to bring it down to 14 per cent by 2017.
The delegation included Anil Taneja Regional Director PHDCCI and executive committee members Sunil Gulati of Ellbee Hospitality, Surendra Singh Regional Head M/S linde India ltd., Vijay Chitturi Unit Head HNGIl and Rakesh Bhatia President UIWA.