Delhiites need to brace up for more power outages or even heftier power bills this summer with a significant hike in power purchase cost from gas-based generating companies.
Tata Power Delhi which supplies power to 1.3 million consumers in North and North-West Delhi has written to the Delhi Government and the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) appraising it of a probable power tariff hike in case of an increase in the prices of natural gas.
Alerting the Government, the TPDDl in its letter has stated that doubling of gas prices from April would result in an imminent increase of over 66 per cent in the cost of power it draws from six gas-based generating power units. More importantly, the upward revision in purchasing cost for the discoms would result in a hike of 28 paisa per unit in the upcoming tariff plan.
The development came immediately after Arvind Kejriwal’s assertion at the CII that only Reliance-owned discoms had problem the power tariff and not the TPDDl owned by the Tata.
The power utility maintains that upping of gas prices would further put burden on the consumers which would translate into an additional financial impact of `233 crore thereby making a power tariff hike inevitable this summer.
“We purchase power from both central and state owned gas plants at a rate of around `3.49 to `4.15 per unit which when compared to the cost of power from other plants is already on the higher side. The increase in gas prices would result in the rate to go up to `5.34 to `6.20 per unit from these plants,” said Sanjay Banga, Head, Power Management Group, TPDDl.
Apart from other power plants, TPDDl draws 237 MW of power from six gas-based units out of which three plants are run by Central Government owned NTPC while the others are run by the Delhi government. These six generating units which supply power to the three discoms in the Capital are namely — Dadri, Auriya, Pragati, Bawana, Anta and GT power plants.
In order to avoid a subsequent hike in power tariffs in the coming months, the power utility has also suggested the DERC and the Government to reallocate power drawn from these plants to other States which may require it.
“TPDDl has made adequate power arrangements for coming summer months at much lesser rates. It is essential for the Government to reallocate the power generated from these generating units as if it is not done it would result in power tariffs to rise by 28 paisa per unit. Apart from saving us from the rising variable cost, the reallocation would also help us in saving on fixed costs which we have to pay to the gencos during off-peak hours,” added Banga.