Gurpreet Singh Nibber
[email protected]
PATIALA

: The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (Powercom) plan for short-term purchases worth Rs 1,800 crore to feed agricultural consumers during the forthcoming paddy season is contradictory to the tariff order passed by the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) for 2010- 11.
As per its tariff order passed on April 23, the regulatory panel has not allowed any purchase of power on short-term basis.

At the time of filing its annu- al revenue requirement (ARR) petition in November last year, the then Punjab State Electric Board (now Powercom) had projected a requirement of 3,255 million unit (MU) of short-term power purchase. The PSERC, however, allowed only long- term power purchase, which has already been fixed.

In fact, the PSERC in its order had noted that Powercom was surplus in long-term power purchases and could earn a revenue of Rs 137 crore from sale of power in the open market, which the PSERC took into account as rev- enue for Powercom.

“The power available from all central generating stations and other sources, including banking, is 15,619 MU. Taking into account the gross power purchase requirement of 15,070 MU, there is surplus of 549 MU, which is proposed to be priced at an average rate of Rs 2.5 per unit, which would fetch Rs 137.25 crore, which is proposed to be adjusted as revenue earned by the board,“ reads the PSERC tariff order of April 23.

Though Powercom is still in the process of finalising the sources of power purchase on short-term basis, it has announced Rs 1,800 crore would be spent on this account.

“We cannot survive without power purchase, especially when the farm sector is to be given assured power supply of eight hours during the paddy season,“ Member (Transmission) V.K. Gupta said. Short-term purchase had been tied up with different sources at Rs 5.25 per unit, he added.

Powercom Finance Controller Subash Arora said the utility would try to cover this year's short-term purchase expenditure in the next year's ARR petition.

However, Padamjit Singh, an independent expert in this field, says: “The board should go as per the PSERC orders. If the approval has to be sought in the next ARR, then the current tariff order has no value.“ In the past, such expenditures have been disallowed by the PSERC. This will only increase the financial burden, he adds.

Powercom and the PSERC have also differed on the total consumption in the agriculture sector. While the ARR petition asked for approval of 11,699 MU, the commission approved only 9,814 MU. A total of Rs 5,137.61 crore was projected as cost of total power purchase (both short and long term), but the PSERC allowed only 3,774.12 MU.