Discoms drop fresh power bomb

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Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) recently proposed repealing the fuel surcharge adjustment (FSA) charge and merging it with the power tariff. But the discoms dropped a bomb at the public meeting on Wednesday by citing Rs 1,137 crore as the sum they have paid in FSA.
APERC’s proposal to combine the FSA component in the power tariff and hold only an annual meeting to review tariffs saw staunch opposition from almost all stakeholders. Political parties opposed it saying an yearly instead of quarterly meeting will reduce accountability. Left party leaders interrupted proceedings throughout the day.
The four discoms together put up an FSA proposal of Rs 1,137 crore for the fourth quarter of the year 2012-13. APERC directed the discoms to give specific explanations on coal and RLNG prices after a number of objections were raised on the issue of higher variable costs shown by the discoms for the same quality of coal as that used by central power generating stations.
“The variable costs claimed by APGenco plants show variations of 36 to 71 per cent, whereas for the same quality of coal bought from the same source, the variation is between 6 to 20 per cent in the case of central generating stations.
Variable costs of gas-based plants too have registered an increase leading to increased FSA burden. The discoms’ proposals do not throw any light on the reasons for this hike,” said TRS MLA T. Harish Rao.
“There should be a quarterly hearing, otherwise the discoms’ accountability to the public will go unchecked. The yearly hearings will be held only to benefit at election time,” secretary of CPI-AP state council K. Narayana said.
As per the repeal proposal, the discoms will be asked to mention the FSA additional burden, if any, in the regular annual tariff proposals as a built-in arrangement. “It is unfair that the utter failure of the government to generate enough power during the last 15 years is being borne by the people in the form of hefty tariffs,” said former Union minister B. Dattatreya.