Power scene dim, Manesar units dip into huge losses
Vineet Gill, TNN, Oct 18, 2010,

Gurgaon : More than 350 industrial units in the Manesar IMT belt are facing monthly losses worth crores of rupees, courtesy erratic power supply in the region.

The Manesar Industrial Welfare Association pegs the losses faced by these companies at over Rs 3 crore a month.

Harassed, the industrialists and welfare association have written a joint letter to the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC), asking them to look into the matter.

The association has demanded better power supply and asked the HERC to revise the minimum charge scheme. When applying for new power connections, the industrialists choose a power scheme depending on their total consumption.

If I choose the 200-KW scheme, I pay Rs 60,000 a month, regardless of whether I get that quantum of supply or not, said an industrialist.

The association has demanded that either the minimum charge scheme be altered or the supply be augmented.

Apart from that, they have peak-hour rates, which are double the usual rates, said the president of the association, M K Bhargava.

The peak hours from 5.30 am to 8 am and 5.30 pm to 10 pm are not properly assigned, said Bhargava.

Power supply is erratic even during peak hours. But they should reassign the peak hour brackets so that the industrialists dont have to spend that much on power. We end up working only during the peak hours, he added.

The industrialists are an aggrieved lot. There are days when there are 15-hour-long powercuts. Due to this, we end up spending huge amounts of cash on diesel and generator sets, said an industrialist based in Manesar, Sector 3.

During peak hours, the industrialists are made to pay double the amount they usually do. I run a printing unit and I have incurred losses worth Rs 3 lakh to 4 lakh each month due to the power crisis, said another industrialist in Sector 3.

The DHBVN spokesperson, however, maintained that industrialists had been warned in advance about powercuts.

In the agreement they signed with us, it was clearly mentioned that powercuts will occur and that industrialists should use generators in such cases, said the official.

He added that during peak hours, the residential areas are given preference over the industrial ones and that explains why a major chunk of the supply is diverted during the hours.

On revising the minimum charges, the spokesperson added: As far as revising the minimum charges or peak hours is concerned, that is the exclusive domain of HERC.