People want power to be cheaper, says DERC

With the demand for power increasing in the Capital, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on Wednesday witnessed people urging cheaper power at a public hearing held to discuss tariff revision and business plan.

"People have asked us to avoid big power production companies who provide electric at higher prices and asked us to maintain fair business with all companies," said a senior DERC official.

However, the official added, "If we chose cheaper power production companies, we cannot reach the high demand." He admitted that people urged so because it will help to maintain a low tariff price.

For the last two years, power tariffs were not hiked. However, following petitions filed by different discoms, power tariffs could likely rise this year. The discoms noted that the total revenue gap last financial year was over Rs 34,000 crore.

The estimated revenue requirement submitted by BSES Rajdhani Power is Rs 9,052 crore, Rs 4,892 crore by BSES Yamuna Power and Rs 7,680 crore by Tata Power.

These discoms have demanded an appropriate revenue gap recovery and suitable cost-reflective tariffs to address the estimated revenue gap for the current year.

Talking about the business, the official said that DERC had already signed business agreements with many big companies, which cannot be cancelled. "Otherwise, it will become a legal issue," he added.

The growing population of Delhi has been pushing for more power. The DERC said that it always tries to provide cheaper power, but people should try to understand our responsibilities. "If we have opted only cheaper power production companies, then Delhi would have suffered from repeated power cuts for long time in this summer," the official said.

However, according to the DERC, people had praised the power management by them. "We have assured people and the companies that we will go through all the demands and then take necessary steps on tariff hike.

Significantly, this year, the participation of people at Wednesday's hearing was lesser than in the previous years.