DERC holds ground, tariff won’t change till July

Delhiites can breathe a sigh of relief after the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on Friday refused to comply to the private power distribution companies’ demands of a hike for Power Purchase Cost Adjustment charges (PPAC) for three months.

The three private power distribution companies (Discoms) of Delhi—BSES Yamuna Power LTD (BYPL), BSES Rajdhani Power LTD (BRPL) and Tata Power Delhi Distribution LTD (TPDDL) had sought a hike for power purchase cost adjustment charges (PPAC). The power tariff was hiked by up to eight per cent in January 2014 itself.

The DERC reviews the demands on PPAC quarterly. For the first quarter of the current year, TPDDL had demanded a hike of 15.478 percent, BRPL had demanded 14.3 percent and BYPL had demanded a whopping 32.51 percent of hike.

For the first quarter of last year, the TPDDL had sought a hike of 13.272 percent, BRPL had sought 11.6 percent and BYPL had sought a massive hike of 23.8 percent.

‘Due to delay in submission of PPAC claims for the quarter January 2014 — March 2014, there is no sufficient time for seeking additional relevant information and for scrutiny of data submitted by the discoms with PPAC claims,’ DERC secretary Jaishree Raghuraman said in a statement.

Citing the delay and higher PPAC claims for the first quarter of the current year, the commission decided to extend the existing PPAC surcharge provisionally without any hike for the discoms.

‘PPAC claims submitted are higher than last quarter and the tariff order for the year 2014-15 is also expected soon. The current PPAC will be effective from 1 May, 2014, to 31 August, 2014,’ the official added.

The current PPAC is six percent for BRPL, eight percent for BYPL and seven percent for TPDDL respectively.

The commission’s decision, however, has clearly indicated a substantial power tariff hike in September this year.